Michael Wynn's Occult Reference Library
NORSE,NORSE-MEN,NORSEMEN

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18276066 GRIMM JACOB TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL 1

the only additions or alterations i have ventured to make in the text are the following: 1. the book bristles with quotations in various languages, for the most part untranslated. an ordinary german reader might find the old and the middle high german about as intelligible as an ordinary englishman does anglo-saxon and chaucer respectively. but when it comes to making out a word or passage in old norse, greek, and even slavic, i must suppose the author to have written for a much more limited and learned public than that which, i hope, will find this english edition sufficiently readable. i have therefore translated a great many words and sentences. viii translator's preface. where the interest, and even the argument, of the paragraph depended on the reader's understanding the quotations. t

r than teutonic mythology? i am bound to admit that the author aimed at building up a deutsch mythology, as distinct from the scandinavian, and that he expressly disclaims the intention of giving a complete account of the latter, because its fulness would have thrown the more meagre remains of the deutsch into the shade. at the same time he necessarily draws so much upon the richer remains of the norse mythology, that it forms quite a substantive portion of his book, though not exhaustive as regards the norse system itself. but what does grimm mean by deutsch? to translate it by german would be at least as misleading in the other direction. it would not amongst us be generally understood to include what he expressly intends it to include the netherlands and england; for the english are sun

mance languages have their pagano, paycn &c, nay, it has penetrated into bohem. pohan, pol. poganin, lith. pagonas [but russ. j)or/a?i= unclean. the gothic hdithi campus early developed an adj. haithns agrestis, campestris^ paganus (ulph. in mark 7, 2(i renders fk\r]i/is by liaitlind, the old h.g. heida an adj. lieidaii, mid. h. and dutch heide heiden, a.s. hu:l) jtcc^in, engl, heath heathen. old norse heitji hei'sinn; swed. and dan. use /leffiit'wj. the o.h.g word retains its adj. nature, and forms its gen. pi. heidanero. our present heide, gen. heiden (for heiden, gen. heidens) is erroneoi;s, but current ever since luther. full confirmation is afforded by mid. lat. agrestis= paganus, e.g. in the passage quoted "in ch. iv from vita s. agili; ami the' wilde heiden' in our heldenbuch is an

, and consecrates for us every country, from which the fixing of our gaze beyond the alps would alienate us. probably some sects and parties, non-conformity here and there among the heathen themselves, nay, in individual minds a precocious elevation of sentiment and morals, came half-way to meet the introduction of christianity, as afterwards its purification (see suppl. it is remarkable that old norse legend occasionally mentions certain men who, turning away in utter disgust and doubt from the heathen faith, placed their reliance on their own strength and virtue. thus in the solar lios 17 we read of vebogi and eadey' a sik];au trusu' in themselves they trusted; of king hakon (fornm. sog. 1, 35' konungr gerir sem allir asrir]?eir sem trua a matt sinn ok megin' the king does like all other

f the heathen seem to have entertained the notion, which the missionaries did all in their power to resist, of combining the new doctrine with their ancient faith, and even of fusing them into one. of norsemen as well as of anglo-saxons we are told, that some believed at the same time in christ and in heathen gods, or at least continued to invoke the latter in particular cases in which they 1 old norse sagas and songs have remarkable passages in winch the gods' are coarsely derided. a good deal in lokasenna and harbard's song may pass for rough joking -which still leaves the holiest things unshaken (see suppl. but faith has certainly grown fainter, when a daring poet can compare osinn and freyja to dogs (fornm. sog. 2, 207. islend. sog. 1, 11. ed. nov. 372. nialss. igo: when another calls

ly shows that such recollections could not really have died out^ and who will show me in sweden, which clung to heathenism longer and more tenaciously, such a composition as actually appeared in denmark during the twelftli century? but for this fact, would not the doubters declare such a thing impossible in sweden? in truth, the first eight books of saxo are to me the most welcome monument of the norse mythology, not only for their intrinsic worth, but because they show in what an altered light the ancient faith of the people had to be placed before the recent converts. i especially remark, that saxo suppresses all mention of some prominent gods; what right have we then to infer from the non-mention of many deities in the far scantier records of inland germany, that they had never been hea

show in what an altered light the ancient faith of the people had to be placed before the recent converts. i especially remark, that saxo suppresses all mention of some prominent gods; what right have we then to infer from the non-mention of many deities in the far scantier records of inland germany, that they had never been heard of there? then, apart from saxo, we find a purer authority for the norse religion preserved for us in the remotest corner of the north, whither it had fled as it were for more perfect safety, namely, in iceland. it is preserved not only in the two eddas, but in a multitude of sagas of various shape, which, but for that emigration 1 as late as the tenth century the heroic tale of walther and hildegimd was poetized in latin at st. gall, aiid arelie of heathen poetr

rious shape, which, but for that emigration 1 as late as the tenth century the heroic tale of walther and hildegimd was poetized in latin at st. gall, aiid arelie of heathen poetry was\\titten down iu german [dcutlich, a misprint for deutsch i, probably at merseburg. 10 intkoduction. coming to the rescue, would probably have perished in norway, sweden and denmark. to assail the genuineness of the norse mythology is as much as to cast doubt on the genuineness and independence of the norse language. that it has been handed down to us both in a clearer and an obscurer shape, through older and more modern authoriti-es, makes it all the easier to study it from many sides and mqre historically. just as little can we fail to perceive the kinship and close connexion of the norse mythology with the

urer shape, through older and more modern authoriti-es, makes it all the easier to study it from many sides and mqre historically. just as little can we fail to perceive the kinship and close connexion of the norse mythology with the rest of teutonic mythology. i have undertaken to collect and set forth all that can now be known of german heathenism, and that exclusively of the complete system of norse mythology. by such limitation i hope to gain clearness and space, and to sharpen our vision for a criticism of the old german faith, so far as it stands opposed to the norse, or aloof from it; so that we need only concern ourselves with -the latter, where in substance or tendency it coincides with that of inland germany. the antiquity, originality and affinity of the german and norse mytholo

tion either unknown or quite differently applied by their neighbours, should have differed materially in their religious belief. alliteration seems to give place to christian rhyme, first in upper germany, and then in saxony, precisely because it had been the characteristic of heathen songs then still existing. without prejudice to their original affinity, it is quite true that the german and the norse dialects and poetries have their peculiarities of form and finish; but it would seem incredible that the one race should have had gods and the other none, or that the chief divinities of the two should have been really different from one another. there were marked differences no doubt, but not otherwise than in their language; and as the gothic, anglo- saxon and old high german dialects have

es of form and finish; but it would seem incredible that the one race should have had gods and the other none, or that the chief divinities of the two should have been really different from one another. there were marked differences no doubt, but not otherwise than in their language; and as the gothic, anglo- saxon and old high german dialects have their several points of superiority over the old norse, so may the faitli of inland germany liave in many points its claims to distinction and individuality. intkoductioxn. 11 2. the joint possession, by all teutonic tongues, of many terms relating to religious worship. if we are able to produce a word used by the goths in the 4th century, by the alamanni in the 8th, in exactly the same form and sense as it continues to bear in the norse authori

o distinction and individuality. intkoductioxn. 11 2. the joint possession, by all teutonic tongues, of many terms relating to religious worship. if we are able to produce a word used by the goths in the 4th century, by the alamanni in the 8th, in exactly the same form and sense as it continues to bear in the norse authorities of the 12th or 13th century, the affinity of the german faith with the norse, and the antiquity of the latter, are thereby vindicated. 3. the identity of mythic notions and nomenclature, which ever and anon breaks out: thus the agreement of the o.h.g. muspilli, 0. sax. mudspelli, with the eddie muspell, of the o.h.g. itis, a. sax. ides, with the eddie dis, or of the a. sax. brosinga mene with the eddie brisinga men, affords perfectly conclusive evidence. 4. the preci

A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO WITCHCRAFT AND MAGICK SPELLS

d him in a more evolved form. the annual celebrations of this event coincided with the rising of the dog star, sirius, which heralded the flooding of the nile and the restoration of fertility to the land and symbolically to the people. as the sky gods gained supremacy, they married the earth goddesses who slowly evolved into patronesses of women, marriage and childbirth. so, for example, odin the norse all-father married frigg, goddess of women, marriage and motherhood. but in witchcraft, though the sky fathers and their wives are used for the focus of specific rites, the goddess retains the earlier form as the creative principle. as the triple goddess- maiden, mother and wise woman or crone- she is frequently central to coven work. generally in magick the goddess is recognised as the prim

ame dates. in the old celtic tradition, lugh, the god of light overcame his twin, the god of darkness, and at easter, the christian spring festival most closely associated with the spring equinox, the resurrection of christ is associated with the restoration of light to the world. the first eggs of spring were painted and offered on the shrine of eostre, the anglo-saxon goddess of the spring. her norse counterpart was ostara, the maiden aspect of frigg, the mother goddess, to whom the hare was sacred (this is the origin of the easter rabbit. at the spring equinox, bonfires were lit and the corn dolly of the previous harvest (or in christian times a judas figure) was burned on the easter fires. the ashes were scattered on the field for fertility. wake at dawn on equinox morn or easter sunda

ale ceremony. this last sheaf was cut by a number of people casting their sickles simultaneously, so no one would know who killed the corn god, though he offered himself willingly so that there would be abundant future harvests. as well as being used to make the harvest loaf, some of the corn was woven into corn dollies, symbol of the earth mother, decorated with the scarlet ribbons of frigg, the norse mother goddess. these corn dollies would be hung over domestic hearths throughout winter. some were made into the shape of a corn mother or a cornucopia, or horn of plenty, and others were tied into knots that bound in the power and protection. this art continues today in rural places. the old name for this month in the celtic coligny calendar was claim-time, when debts would be collected an

BLAVATSKY H P ANTHROPOGENESIS

ind" each also "inferior to his creator" because the latter was a complete being of his kind. the commentaries refer the first sentence to the colour or complexion of each human race thus evolved. in pymander, the seven primitive men, created by nature from the "heavenly man" all partake of the qualities of the "seven governors" or rulers, who loved man- their own reflection and synthesis. in the norse legends, one recognizes in asgard, the habitat of the gods, as also in the ases themselves, the same mystical loci and personifications woven into the popular "myths" as in our secret doctrine; and we find them in the vedas, the puranas, the mazdean scriptures and the kabala. the ases of scandinavia, the rulers of the world which preceded ours, whose name means literally the "pillars of the

stics. the ases create the earth, the seas, the sky and the clouds, the whole visible world, from the remains of the slain giant ymir; but they do not create man, but only his form from the ask or ash-tree. it is odin who endows him with life and soul, after lodur had given him blood and bones, and finally it is honir who furnishes him with his intellect (manas) and with his conscious senses. the norse ask, the hesiodic ash-tree, whence issued the men of the generation of bronze, the third root-race, and the tzite tree of the popol-vuh, out of which the mexican third race of men was created, are all one* this may be plainly seen by any reader. but the occult reason why the norse yggdrasil, the hindu aswatha, the gogard, the hellenic tree of life, and the tibetan zampun, are one with the ka

e of science, divine and human; and he who comprehends its full meaning is for ever liberated from the toils of mahamaya, the great illusion and deceiver. the light that shines from under the divine hammer, now degraded into the mallet or gavel of the grand masters of masonic lodges, is sufficient to dissipate the darkness of any human schemes or fictions. how prophetic are the songs of the three norse goddesses, to whom the ravens of odin whisper of the past and the future, as they flutter around in their abode of crystal beneath the flowing river. the songs are all written down in the "scrolls of wisdom" of which many are lost but some still remain: and they repeat in poetical allegory the teachings of the archaic ages. to summarise from dr. wagner's "asgard and the gods" the "renewal of

re still divine, although his body is earthly, he is (allegorically) accused of divulging the mysteries of heaven" he combines and uses the two for purposes of human, instead of super-human, procreation. henceforth "man will beget, not create* but as, by so doing, he has to use[[footnote(s* returning once more to the most important subject in the archaic cosmogony, it may be said that even in the norse legends, in the sacred scrolls of the goddess saga, we find loki, the brother by blood of odin (as typhon, ahriman, and others are brothers of osiris and ormazd, becoming evil only later, when he has mixed too long with humanity. like all other fire or light gods- fire burning and destroying as well as warming and giving life- he ended by being accepted in the destructive sense of "fire" the

oroneus was the nymph melia; a significant descent which distinguishes him from prometheus. melia, decharme thinks, is the personification of the ash-tree, whence[[vol. 2, page] 520 the secret doctrine. according to hesiod, issued the race of the age of bronze (opera et dies, 142-145; and which with the greeks is the celestial tree common to every aryan mythology. this ash is the yggdrasil of the norse antiquity, which the norns sprinkle daily with the waters from the fountain of urd, that it may not wither. it remains verdant till the last days of the golden age. then the norns- the three sisters who gaze respectively into the past, the present, and the future- make known the decree of fate (karma, orlog, but men are conscious only of the present. but when gultweig comes (the golden ore "

e heirs to the cyclopean lore left to them by generations of mighty builders and "magicians" both good and bad. it will always be a subject of regret that history, rejecting a priori the actual existence of giants, has preserved us so little of the records of antiquity concerning them. yet in nearly every mythology- which after all is ancient history- the giants play an important part. in the old norse mythology, the giants, skrymir and his brethren, against whom the sons of the gods fought, were potent factors in the histories of deities and men. the modern exegesis, that makes these giants to be the brethren of the dwarfs, and reduces the combats of the gods to the history of the development of the aryan race, will only receive credence amongst the believers in the aryan theory, as expou

BLAVATSKY H P COSMOGENESIS

r spheres, who took forthwith their abodes in these forms born of spiritual will and the natural divine power in man. it was a child of pure spirit, mentally unalloyed with any tincture of earthly element. its physical frame alone was of time and of life, as it drew its intelligence direct from above. it was the living tree of divine wisdom; and may therefore be likened to the mundane tree of the norse legend, which cannot wither and die until the last battle of life shall be fought, while its roots are gnawed all the time by the dragon nidhogg; for even so, the first and holy son of kriyasakti had his body gnawed by the tooth of time, but the roots of his inner being remained for ever undecaying and strong, because they grew and expanded in heaven not on earth. he was the first of the fir

platonist, edited by t. m. johnson, f.t.s, osceola, missouri (feb. number of 1887[[vol. 1, page] 427 the creative logoi, androgynous. producer and the secondary cause of it. with pythagoras, the monad returns into silence and darkness as soon as it has evolved the triad, from which emanate the remaining seven numbers of the 10 (ten) numbers which are at the base of the manifested universe. in the norse cosmogony it is again the same "in the beginning was a great abyss (chaos, neither day nor night existed; the abyss was ginnungagap, the yawning gulf, without beginning, without end. all father, the uncreated, the unseen, dwelt in the depth of the 'abyss (space) and willed, and what was willed came into being (see "asgard and the gods) as in the hindu cosmogony, the evolution of the universe

BUCKLAND RAYMOND COMPLETE BOOK OF WITCHCRAFT

ft for what it truly is. soon sybil leek arrived on the scene, followed by gavin and yvonne frost and other individuals. it was an exciting time as more and more covens, and many different traditions, came into the open or at least made themselves known. today the would-be witch has a wide selection from which to choose: gardnerian, celtic (in many variations, saxon, alexandrian, druidic, algard, norse, irish, scottish, sicilian, huna, etc. details of some of these different traditions are given in the appendix. that there are so many, and such varied, branches("denominations" or "traditions) of witchcraft is admirable. as i said in the introduction to this work, we are all different. it is not surprising that there is no one religion that suits all people. in the same way, then, there can

ckground on which to lean. namely, a saxon background. by this i most emphatically do not mean that there is any claim to its liturgy being of direct descent from saxon origins. but, for example, names were needed for the deities. the main male and female deities of the saxons were woden and frig. unfortunately 'frig'has certain connotations today which would be misplaced! 1 therefore adopted the norse variant, freya. so woden and freya are the 'labels' used for the god and goddess worshipped by the seax-wica (earth religion news, yule 1973) the seax-wica does not claim to be a reconstruction of the original saxon craft such a task would be impossible. it is merely a workable tradition built on a saxon framework, and the deity names were chosen specifically and for the reasons given. any c

germanic, scandinavian, and anglo-saxon. they each, in turn, have_ any number of subdivisions/ variations. looking first at the germanic, there are basically twenty-four different runes employed, though variations may be found in different areas. a common name for the germanic runes is futhark, after the first six letters("th" is one letter p. in the scandinavian (danish and swedish-norwegian, or norse) are found sixteen runes, again with (innumberable) variations. the anglo-saxon runes vary in number, anywhere from twenty-eight to thirty-one. in foot by the ninth century, in northumbria, we find thirty-three runes. a common name for the anglo-saxon runes is futhorc, again from the first six letters. the tree: the complete book of saxon witchcraft raymond buckland, seax-wica runic alphabet

isnion the early kelts and their priests, the druids, had 175 176/ buckland's complete book of witchcraft looking first at the germanic, there are basically twenty-four different runes employed, though variations can be found in different areas. a common name for the germanic runes is futhark, after the first six letters('th' is one letter: f. in the scandinavian (danish and swedish-norwegian, or norse) are found sixteen runes, again with (innumerable) variations. the anglo-saxon runes vary in number, anywhere from twenty-eight to thirty-one. in fact by the ninth century, in north-umbria, we find thirty-three runes. a common name for the anglo-saxon runes is futhorc, again from the first six letters. a 'celtic' form of runes is sometimes employed by gardneriah and celtic covens. the 'saxon

ng in basic gardnerian wica is taught and members are urged, after mastering these basics, to find that particular myth cycle or path consistent with their beliefs" further information is obtainable from deidre, maidenhill, p.o. box 29166, philadelphia, pa 19127. northern way a non-initiatory tradition that works robed "we try to emulate as authentic and traditional re-creation as possible of old norse garb. our god-names are all old norse, not teutonic. we do cast a circle; we do not 'call quarters. our tradition is norse. the group, however, is not hereditary in that members need not be of any particular family or ethnic group" the northern way was founded in 1980 and incorporated in 1982, in chicago. its religion is sometimes called asatru. they observe the four solar fire festivals as

l old norse, not teutonic. we do cast a circle; we do not 'call quarters. our tradition is norse. the group, however, is not hereditary in that members need not be of any particular family or ethnic group" the northern way was founded in 1980 and incorporated in 1982, in chicago. its religion is sometimes called asatru. they observe the four solar fire festivals as well as those indigenous to the norse religion. further details may be obtained from northern way, inc, nova coven, 45 s. lavergne ave, northlake, ii 60164 (312) 562-0802. nova wicca an eclectic group founded by two gardnerians. they work robed at esbats and sabbats and skyclad at initiations. the gardnerian deity names are used, though "working pairs may use others if they wish" nova has a degree system, which is very finely tu

CASSANDRA EASON A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO WITCHCRAFT AND MAGIC

d him in a more evolved form. the annual celebrations of this event coincided with the rising of the dog star, sirius, which heralded the flooding of the nile and the restoration of fertility to the land and symbolically to the people. as the sky gods gained supremacy, they married the earth goddesses who slowly evolved into patronesses of women, marriage and childbirth. so, for example, odin the norse all-father married frigg, goddess of women, marriage and motherhood. but in witchcraft, though the sky fathers and their wives are used for the focus of specific rites, the goddess retains the earlier form as the creative principle. as the triple goddess- maiden, mother and wise woman or crone- she is frequently central to coven work. generally in magick the goddess is recognised as the prim

ame dates. in the old celtic tradition, lugh, the god of light overcame his twin, the god of darkness, and at easter, the christian spring festival most closely associated with the spring equinox, the resurrection of christ is associated with the restoration of light to the world. the first eggs of spring were painted and offered on the shrine of eostre, the anglo-saxon goddess of the spring. her norse counterpart was ostara, the maiden aspect of frigg, the mother goddess, to whom the hare was sacred (this is the origin of the easter rabbit. at the spring equinox, bonfires were lit and the corn dolly of the previous harvest (or in christian times a judas figure) was burned on the easter fires. the ashes were scattered on the field for fertility. wake at dawn on equinox morn or easter sunda

ale ceremony. this last sheaf was cut by a number of people casting their sickles simultaneously, so no one would know who killed the corn god, though he offered himself willingly so that there would be abundant future harvests. as well as being used to make the harvest loaf, some of the corn was woven into corn dollies, symbol of the earth mother, decorated with the scarlet ribbons of frigg, the norse mother goddess. these corn dollies would be hung over domestic hearths throughout winter. some were made into the shape of a corn mother or a cornucopia, or horn of plenty, and others were tied into knots that bound in the power and protection. this art continues today in rural places. the old name for this month in the celtic coligny calendar was claim-time, when debts would be collected an

DAVID ICKE CHILDREN OF THE MATRIX

uce hybrid dna. this is why these outwardly white bloodlines were symbolised by terms like the dragon kings. i know this all sounds fantastic, but stay with me and you will see the evidence to support this apparently bizarre suggestion. south to sumer at least many strands of this "nordic" race travelled to sumer from the far north where we now have scandinavia and northern europe. these were the norse people who came down into france to establish normandy and became the normans, or "norse (north) men" who invaded britain with william the conqueror at the time of the battle of hastings in 1066. these regions of scandinavia and europe were colonies of the former lemurian/atlantean empire. with the cataclysms came the ice sheets and those who survived fled south to what is now france, the ne

other non-human communities abound in folklore across the world and they were often known as the "shining ones, the same as the anunnaki and the "gods" under other names in ancient texts. even a brief glance at the basic themes of these stories confirms that they are talking about the same "extraterrestrials" that abductees and researchers of today's underground bases are describing. the name in norse folklore for this underground world of caverns, tunnel networks, and even vast cities, is niflheim. the close similarity to nefilim is obvious and they were said to reside within the earth. the norse people said that niflheim was ruled by the death goddess, hel. these subterranean networks could be accessed through the mounds and hill forts built by the ancients and the mountains, hills, and

e interbreeding between the nordic and reptilian bloodlines; and (c) the fundamental importance of the goddess to the reptilians. l.a. waddell first began the dragon queens 151 to see the connections between apparently unconnected people and events during his early days in india while studying hindu history and mythology. he noticed that eindri, the name used in the edda text for the european and norse "god" called thor, was remarkably close to the hindu god, indra. the indian vedas, which were inspired by the lemurian and sumerian legends and accounts, describe indra as tall, fair, invincible, and armed with a bolt. this is how eindri or thor is described in the edda and waddell concluded from considerable research that the european god, thor, and the hindu god, indra, were the same perso

ey were the serpent goddess known as el; her consort, the male entity called wodan (votan was the atlantean fire god; and their son, baldr or balder. this was the serpent "trinity" of mother-father-son. el was also known as eldi or "fiery el, the "hound, and, highly significantly, as "mary".24 from this cult and "fiery el" came the term hell "burning in hell" and "fires of hell" el or hel was the norse queen of the underworld and her followers became known as "kinsman of hel".25 in medieval times, this was symbolised as the "harlequin, the lover of the maiden columbine-the-dove. columba, columbine, and the symbol of the dove are all other names and symbols for el, the serpent or dragon queen of the edda. the more i research, the more the 154 children of the matrix world that exists under o

regaining their human shape. this could all be symbolic or it could be connected to the phenomena of the "werewolf" which, according to some former satanists, do exist. the legends of the "troll" or "trulli" demons also appear to be associated with the amazons or valkeries. this is the root of the word, trull, which means loose woman and the troll could have been a pagan "hag" or earth-priestess. norse myth says that the trolls waited under bridges waiting to eat those who crossed without making an offering. the valkeries were said to guard the bridge to heaven or the "bifrost. angels of death were said to attend a ritual called the trolla-thing. woden's day wodan was the consort of the dragon queen, el, according to the edda, and he is a major figure in ancient myths. one of the older nam

ns called men shen with animal-like faces or masks. this was the chinese "hell" and it is said that the lords of hell interacted with the dragon kings on the surface. the japanese "hell" or underground network was similar, and among the non-human entities were the kappa, semi-aquatic reptilian humanoids and other shape-shifters who lived in mountains, under the ground, or under the sea. in viking-norse legend they have the giant serpent, nidhoggr or jormungand, that lived underground and this was similar to the giant serpent apophis in egyptian myth. the scandinavians and germans had their huldre or "hidden folk" who were also known as the elves. one of the codes for the bloodline is "elven" and the beings of folklore like trolls, etins, fairies, elves, troglodytes, nefilim, brownies or br

man investigated, but then he saw something that made him run back in terror. when the 13th earl of strathmore was told what the workman had seen he persuaded him to accept money to emigrate and give his word never to reveal what he saw. lord halifax said that after the incident the earl was a changed man, who became silent and moody, with an "anxious, scared face. 268 children of the matrix the norse/germanic fairies, goblins, trows, knockers, brownies, leprechauns, sidhe (shee, tylwyth teg (terlooeth teig) and so on were either malevolent or indifferent to humanity, michael mott says. they lived, virtually without exception, under the ground. mounds, hills, ruins, ancient raths or hill-forts, mountains, cliffs, and ancient cities were said to be the "rooftops" of their palaces. beings t

that mirror modern reports of the sasquatch (big foot) and the yeti (abominable snowman) can also be found in ancient stories of underground creatures that come to the surface. like the nagas, the serpent people of asia, european folklore often claimed that these "fairy" people entered their underground homes through lakes. michael mott continues "to remove all doubt as to their relationship with norse hidden-folk and indian nagas alike, they shunned the sunlight, and often seemed interested in crossbreeding their own bloodlines with those of human beings, or even in crossbreeding their 'livestock' or fairy cattle, horses, hounds and so forth with the surface species which were most compatible. the goblin-dwarf, rumplestiltskin, in his lust to have the human baby and its genetic bounty, is

DAVID ICKE THE BIGGEST SECRET

omans. theland called old saxony is modern day north germany and the netherlands. both theangles and the saxons came from the same genetic source -the white cimmerians andscythians from the caucasus and the middle/near east. it is the same with william theconqueror and his normans, the last people to invade britain in 1066 at the battle ofhastings. the terms norman and normandy originate from the norse (north) menbecause they came from scandinavia to occupy that region of france. the story of thescandinavian hero odin, says that he came from asaland or asaheim, which justhappens to be the lands of scythia and can be identified in aryan india. from there about200 to 300 ad, it is said, odin led a huge army north to conquer sweden. his army wascalled the svear and in swedish that country is

were laid in 1446 and it was completed in the 1480s. howremarkable then that the stonework at rosslyn includes depictions of sweetcorn andcacti which were only found in america and christopher columbus did notdiscover that continent until 1492! how could this be? there is, in fact, no mystery.christopher columbus was not even nearly the first white person to land in theamericas. the phoenicians, norse, irish, welsh, bretons, basques and portuguese,all sailed to america before him and so did prince henry sinclair of rosslyn, asdocumented in a rare book by frederick i. pohl called prince henry sinclair sv oyage to the new world 1398. sinclair made the journey with another brotherhood179bloodline, the zeno family, one of the most prominent black nobility families inv enice. sinclair and anto

DEMONIC BIBLE

the rituals contained in the demonic bible. he performed the rituals and experienced the crossing of the gates in extremely vivid and symbolic dreams. in 1989, at the age of 19, he began working for the atmospheric environment service of environment canada. over the next few years his library grew extensively as he studied cabalistic magic, enochian magic, sumerian/babylonian magic, celtic magic, norse magic, egyptian magic, witchcraft, voodoo, and satanism. he sought out the lavey church of satan but, at the time, the church of satan was no longer active. he instead became involved in several other satanic organizations: the embassy of s.a.t.a.n, the temple of set, the order of the left-hand-path, the temple of pan-shaitan, and the order of the nine angles. he studied the literature of th

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCCULTISM AND PARAPSYCHOLOGY VOL 1

ionships. north hollywood, calif: bac, 1978. wyman, walker d. witching for water, oil, pipes, and precious minerals. river falls: university of wisconsin press, 1977. american vinland association the american vinland association (ava, founded in the 1980s, is a fellowship of pagan folk following the traditions of northern and central europe. it is based upon the ancient paganism, popularly termed norse, that was practiced from iceland across scandinavia to poland, russia, and siberia. practitioners are united in following the same deities, the old gods of the aesir and vanir (the asatru, but have a wide range of beliefs and practices and use some very different terminology. the ava promotes the reestablishment of the old religions of northern and central pagan europe. it has a broad and in

glendale: g/l regal books, 1973. newhouse, flower a. natives of eternity. vista, calif: the author, 1950. o kennedy, rev. r. book of the holy angels. london, 1887. swedenborg, emanuel. earths in planets& in starry heavens: inhabitants, spirits& angels. london, 1758. wendell, leilah. the book of azrael. new york: westgate press, 1988. angelseaxisce ealdriht angelseaxisce ealdriht is one of several norse pagan groups to emerge as paganism has become established anew among people of northern european descent residing in north america. members venerate the deities that were popular in pre- christian scandinavia and germany, referred to collectively as the aesir and vanir. they include woden (or odin, ing frea (freyr, tiw (tyr, frige (frigg, and thunor (thor. members value beliefs (or thoth) th

paris in 845 by the viking ragnar lobrok. local groups called skeppslags, or ship s crews, consisted of 3 to 15 members. also, interest groups were formed as guilds to develop skills in activities from sewing to brewing. the assembly reached a crisis in 1987, when mcnallen felt unable to continue as the primary leader and disbanded the organization. in the meantime, a number of mostly small local norse groups had arisen, some falling victim to racial ideologies that alienated them from the larger body of neo-pagans. among his last productions was the publication of a book of norse rituals. the fall of the asatru free assembly also left a vacuum just as norse paganism appeared to be in a growth phase. former members began to form new associations such as the asatru alliance and the ring of

asatru alliance may be contacted at p. o. box 961, payton, az 85547. its extensive website can be found at http/ eagle.webpipe.net. it publishes a periodical, vor tru. encyclopedia of occultism& parapsychology. 5th ed. asatru alliance 91 asatru folk assembly the asatru folk assembly was founded in california in 1994 by stephen a. mcnallen, the pioneer american advocate of the magical polytheistic norse neo-paganism that became an international religious community in north america and europe in the last quarter of the twentieth century. mcnallen founded the original north american group of the asatru (literally, loyalty to the germanic deities, the viking brotherhood, while a college student in texas in 1971 (unknown to him at the time, other groups were being created simultaneously elsewhe

ing several years as a junior high school teacher, mcnallen decided to return to active leadership in the faith community he had largely founded. in 1992 he restarted the runestone, the old assembly s periodical. then in 1994, he created the asatru folk assembly, modeled on the previous assembly. the new assembly continues the beliefs and practices appropriate to the acknowledgment of the ancient norse deities. new local kindred groups have been organized and the annual gatherings revived. as with the former afa, several guilds (special interest groups) have emerged, and wolf age, a periodical for the warrior guild, appeared. the new afa has even gone to court to protect the remains of an ancient man, believed to be caucasoid, discovered in america. as of the end of the 1990s, the revived

to protect the remains of an ancient man, believed to be caucasoid, discovered in america. as of the end of the 1990s, the revived assembly is still very much a small emerging organization. it may be contacted at p.o. box 445, nevada city, ca 95959. website: http/ www.runestone.org. sources: mcnallen, stephen a. rituals of asatru. 3 vols. breckenridge, tex: asatru free assembly, 1985. what is the norse religion? turlock, calif: the author, n.d. asbestos asbestos is so called from being inextinguishable even by showers and storms, if once set on fire. the name derives from an ancient greek term for a fabulous stone. pagan peoples made use of it for lights in their temples. plutarch records that the vestal virgins used perpetual lamp wicks, while pausanias mentions a lamp with a wick that wa

and was appointed to the maudsley hospital, london in 1936, where after a long tenure he was named emeritus physician. during his career he wrote a number of articles on parapsychological subjects. sources: gillespie, william h. extrasensory elements in dream interpretation. psychoanalysis and the occult. edited by george devereaux. new york: international universities press, 1953. ginnungagap in norse mythology, the unfathomable gap between niflheim (the region of eternal cold, mist, and darkness) and muspellsheim (the realm of fire).the void before the creation. cold winds from the abyss changed the streams into blocks of ice, which fell into the void with the sound of thunder, the legends say. sparks from muspellsheim turned the ice into streams, forming layers of frost that filled the

era can be contacted at plaza de armas, bolivar no. 170, ica, peru. sources: cabrera, javier. the message of the ingraved stones of ica. ica, peru: the author, n.d. prickett, robert. ica stones of peru. http/ www.mm2000.nu/sphinxff.html. june 11, 2000. stones of ica, peru. http//www.geocities.com/paris/rue/ 3378/stones.html. june 11, 2000. iceland the history of iceland began around 870 c.e. when norse settlers arrived from the west coast of norway, as well as those who had previously settled in ireland and great britain. some icelanders would explore eventually the land that came to be known as greenland; but the majority of the people of iceland formed a conservative rural society. they were farmers who created a highly-evolved social structure defined by their work with the land. the st

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCCULTISM AND PARAPSYCHOLOGY VOL 2

ng services and programs in paranormal research. sources: mcmoneagle, joseph. mind trek. charlottesville, va: hampton roads publishing co, 1993. rev. ed, 1997. the ultimate time machine: a remote viewer s perception of time, and predictions for the new millennium. charlottesville, va: hampton roads publishing co, 1998. mcnallen, stephen a (1948) stephen a. mcnallen, the pioneer advocate of modern norse neo-paganism in north america, was born in breckenridge, texas, on october 15, 1948. he attended midwestern university in wichita falls, texas, and during his college days discovered the deities of the ancient norsemen and began to identify with the viking element in his own ancestry. he eventually dedicated himself to odin and the whole of the norse pantheon, though he kept this commitment

brotherhood. mcnallen completed his degree in political science and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the army. he did his basic training at fort benning (georgia) and was assigned to a unit in germany, where he served for the remainder of his term. the viking brotherhood continued at a minimal level until he returned to the states in 1976. he settled in california and began to meet with norse neo-pagans in the san francisco area. mcnallen actively developed his understanding of the asatru (or loyalty to the germanic deities) and shortly after his assuming active leadership in the brotherhood, he reformed it as asatru free assembly. his efforts received a significant boost when the first edition of margot adler s survey of the contemporary community, drawing down the moon, appeare

dership in the brotherhood, he reformed it as asatru free assembly. his efforts received a significant boost when the first edition of margot adler s survey of the contemporary community, drawing down the moon, appeared in 1979. he even appeared on the radio show of christian evangelist bob larson, which provided further national exposure. he continued to edit the runestone and compiled a book of norse rituals. feeling burned out, he dissolved the assembly in 1987, though he did not abandon his faith. others continued the work of the assembly in various alternative organizations and mcnallen moved to northern california. he obtained his teaching credentials and got a job teaching science and math in a junior high school. in his spare time, he traveled to northern india and burma and turned

runestone and founded a new fellowship group, the asatru folk assembly, modelled on the previous asatru free assembly. he has also continued his global travels, beginning with africa and bosnia in 1993. he maintains the internet page for the new assembly at http//www.runestone.org. sources: mcnallen, stephen a. rituals of asatru. 3 vols. breckenridge, tex: asatru free assembly, 1985. what is the norse religion? turlock, calif: the author, n.d. mead, g(eorge) r(obert) s(tow (1863.1933) theosophist, scholar, and writer on gnosticism and early christianity. born march 22, 1863, he was educated at st. john s college, cambridge (m.a, 1885. in 1884 mead joined the theosophical society, and in 1889 he gave up his work as a teacher to be closely concerned with the theosophical society and its cof

e system of identifying thieves by the turning of their eyes when associated with certain ceremonies. od (odic force (or odyle) the term first used by baron karl von reichenbach to denote the subtle effluence that he claimed emanated from every substance in the universe, particularly from the stars and planets, and from crystals, magnets, and the human body. the term od was derived from odin, the norse deity, indicating a power that permeated the whole of nature. the name od was retained by dr. john ashburner (1816.1878) in his translation of reichenbach s writings, but another translator, william gregory (1803.1858, substituted odyle, probably hoping it would sound more scientific than od. od or odyle was perceptible to sensitives, in whom it produced vague feelings of heat or cold, accor

ong series of scientific papers on meteorites. his many contributions earned him a well-deserved reputation as a brilliant scientist and industrialist. meanwhile his experiments in human sensitivity from 1839 onward were not as well received by his colleagues; in fact, he was harshly criticized. these experiments involved attempts to demonstrate a mysterious vital force which he named od, for the norse deity odin, indicating a power, like the animal magnetism conceived by franz a. mesmer, which permeates the whole of nature. detection and demonstration of this force depended upon sensitives.specially gifted individuals rather like psychics, although reichenbach s sensitives were ordinary people from all walks of life. these individuals experienced specific reactions to the proximity of oth

logy. new york: helix press, 1964. ringger, peter. parapsychologie: die wissenschaft des okkulten (parapsychology: the science of the occult. n.p, 1957. reprint, zurich; stuttgart: werner classen, 1972. das problem der besessenheit (the problem of possession. n.p, 1953. das weltbild der parapsychologie (the world view of parapsychology. n.p, 1959. ring of thoth the ring of thoth is a contemporary norse pagan association founded shortly after the disbanding of the asatru free assembly in 1987. the asatru free assembly had been the first and most prominent organization attempting to revive the acknowledgment of the pre-christian deities once generally worshiped throughout germany and the scandinavian countries. the ring of thoth was founded by edred thorsson (stephen edred flowers) and james

cknowledgment of the pre-christian deities once generally worshiped throughout germany and the scandinavian countries. the ring of thoth was founded by edred thorsson (stephen edred flowers) and james chisholm as an explicitly non-racist organization dedicated to the promotion of the religion of the germanic peoples (during the 1980s racism was a persistent charge leveled against groups promoting norse paganism) it sees itself as taking a more liberal and scholarly approach than that taken by the other major group formed somewhat simultaneously, the asatru alliance. in other respects it continues the beliefs and practices of the former asatru free assembly. the ring allows considerable variation in belief and practice but is united by a common loyalty to, or troth with, the norse gods and

gic apples of immortality. dating from the 3rd century c.e, runic inscriptions have been found in areas between the black sea and the baltic (territories occupied by goths) as well as throughout scandinavia. at one point, odin dies to acquire the runes for humankind, and, as men were expected to imitate his sacrifice, high praise was given to one who died in battle. in place of dying in battle, a norse warrior might carve the runes on his body and bleed to death, that day thus being marked as a red-letter day. runes were inscribed on stone monuments to commemorate events and individuals as well as for magical purposes. they were also used on objects like brooches. typical of runic inscriptions is the writing on an ancient danish monument which reads: rolf raised this stone, priest and chie

th, cokadame, tutivillus, browny, and syr garnega, who may be the same as girnigo, to whom cross children are often likened by angry mothers of the scottish working classes. the scottish verb, to girn (to pull grotesque faces or grin, may find its origin in the name of a medieval fiend, the last shadow of some teutonic or celtic deity of unlovable attributes. in sym skynar, we may have skyrnir, a norse giant in whose glove thor found shelter from an earthquake, and who sadly fooled him and his companions. skyrnir was one of the jotunn or norse titans, and probably one of the powers of winter, and he may have received the popular surname of sym in the same manner as we speak of jack frost. a great deal has still to be done in unearthing the minor figures of scottish mythology and demonology

ion in a planned course of study that begins with hermetic philosophy and jungian psychology, especially the concept of archetypes. specific archetypes will become the focus of attention and the subject of pathworking, the foundation of the order s esoteric practices. the basic curriculum also includes instruction in pagan mythology, genealogy, and astrology. the order teaches that the deities of norse paganism represent in essence the creative/ destructive forces of the cosmos. students are also advised to supplement their study with additional readings, including the writings of adolf hitler, freidrich nietsche, julius evola, and oswald spengler. the order may be contacted at box 1473, deer park, wa 99006. it publishes a quarterly periodical, crossing the abyss. its web presence may be a

ESOTERISM AND THE LEFT HAND PATH

the atman/shaktikundalini. it also corresponds to the luciferian light or the promethean flame which can turn men into gods if it is found inside. man and his soul corresponds to principles in the universe outside us. in draconian philosophy the thought about the living nature is important since this philosophy turns against an atomistic and materialistic view of man and nature. especially in old norse and celtic magic can we found the dragon as a symbol of the spirit of nature. but also in the chinese tradition of feng shui. all esoteric knowledge exits in nature, but is hidden from the civilized modern man. the tree of knowledge is more than a metaphor. the middle levels that faivre mentions are represents the astral worlds and the different levels that the magician passes during the alc

FELDMAN DANIEL QABALAH THE MYSTICAL HERITAGE OF THE CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM

ans called pagans, had celebrated it as yule, and a number of other traditions as the birthday of solar saviors. the mithraists, for instance, regarded it as the birthday of mithra. the romans celebrated the date as dies natalis solis invictus, day of birth of the undefeated sun. the christian observance of the pentecost replaced the tradition of whitsunday, the holy day of the goddess frigg, the norse queen of heaven and consort of odin. easter absorbed the pesach of the jews, and was named after eostre or ostara, the pagan goddess of spring. 17 dimont, max. jews, god, and history, simon and schuster, new york p. 205, 1962. 18 peshitta, matthew 5:17-18. 19 eisenman, robert. james the brother of jesus, penguin, new york 1997. 20 gospel of thomas, translated by thomas hickey, esoterica, iow

FREEMASONRY AND CATHOLICISM BY MAX HEINDEL

ing forth and increase sufficiently to keep the fauna of our planet at normal. according to the masonic legend, hiram abiff, the grand master, used a hammer to call his workmen, and it is significant that the symbol of the sign aries, where this wonderful creative activity commences, is shaped like a double ram's horn, which also resembles a hammer. it is also worthy of notice that in the ancient norse mythology, the vanir or water deities are said to have been conquered by the assir, or fire gods. the hammer wherewith the norse god thor struck fire from the sky finds its counterpart in the thunderbolt of jove; like hiram, the assir belong to the hierarchy of fire, the lucifer spirits, the sons of cain, striving for positive mastership through individual effort, and therefore upholding the

FULLER J F C SECRET WISDOM OF THE QABALAH

l shushumna of hindu yoga. the whole scheme is symbolized in the temple of solomon, the temple itself being the central pillar, whilst its two pylons, yakhin and boaz, the white and the black, the right and the left, represent the tree of the knowledge of good and evil- the eternal complementary forces in life without which nothing can be. this symbolism is an excessively ancient one thus, in the norse mythology we find the mystic tree yggdrasil, the roots of which are in the material world and the branches of which reach up to asgard, the happy dwelling of the gods. again, amongst the akkadians, chaldeans, and babylonians we find the world tree, or tree of life, which gstood mid-way between the deep and zikum h- the primordial heaven above. in hindu mythology there is also a world tree- t

GAMBLE ELIZA BURT THE GOD IDEA OF THE ANCIENTS OR SEX IN RELIGION

, both past and present, hargrave jennings, in referring to a parallel drawn by sir william jones, between the deities of meru and olympus, observes "all our speculations tend to the same conclusions. one day it is a discovery of cinerary vases, the next, it is etymological research; yet again it is ethnological investigation, and the day after, it is the publication of unsuspected tales from the norse; but all go to heap up proof of our consanguinity with the peoples of history--and of an original general belief, we might add" that the religious systems of india and egypt were originally the same, there can be at the present time no reasonable doubt. the fact noted by various writers, of the british sepoys, who, on their overland route from india, upon beholding the ruins of dendera, pros

GNOSTIC HANDBOOK

rth and sky polarity was probably the most ancient model of the universe, while the logos and sophia model is central to gnosticism, this older structure is found in many nature religions. the divine will is seen as either the cosmic father or mother and the earth is the wife, husband or lover. in this mythology the underworld is intricately connected to the earth, even seen as part of it. in the norse tradition the god is odin or tyr (much earlier) and he is the lord of the upper world (asgard) and hel is the goddess of the underworld and earth. hel and freya are much the same goddess, she simply split into two and was demoted due to strong patriarchal and later christian influences. she was the goddess of death and rebirth, fertility and suffering, she guards the dead and sends them back

of the underworld and earth. hel and freya are much the same goddess, she simply split into two and was demoted due to strong patriarchal and later christian influences. she was the goddess of death and rebirth, fertility and suffering, she guards the dead and sends them back to life, she compliments and completes the lord or tyr/odin. in celtic mythology she guards the great cauldron and in the norse this cauldron is the seething cauldron from which the drizzle formed from fire and ice coalesces and from which life is formulated. we can see a cross over with sophia, she too is the goddess of the departed and the earth. this system also embraces the logos and sophia model but expresses it in a different way. the danger with overtly nature oriented symbolism is that it genderizes the princ

ignorance and hence follow them. the battle within this model becomes more complex when we start to consider its full ramifications. if the watchers interbred with mankind and produced giants, then this is bizarre enough. however, if their hanged genetic make up (due to their fall) has mixed with ours then mind is a mixture of two lifestreams. this mixture is found hinted at in all literature, in norse mythology we are a mixture of the giants and the breath of odin, in some schools of gnosticism were are a mixture of pre-adamite and adamite stock, in others, we are a mixture of the soil of the earth and the divine breath. this biological conflict is important as it explains why we have such different models of experience. there is so much evidence for mans violence and destructiveness, way

grained in both the sciences and arts that that any modern study within both fields accepts as a foundation a belief in evolutionism (both physical and cultural. the traditional view of history is at variance with this approach, it is inevitably cyclic and emphasises the ebbs and flows of culture. while the cycle may return to itself, the focus is on decline rather than on development. within the norse traditions the gods are ultimately destroyed at ragnorak and a new cycle of manifestation, conflict and resolution begins. while within gnosticism the omega day ends the cycle and a new heaven and new earth begins. the vedic system outlines this cycle in far more detail, the whole of creation is governed by a series of cyclic processes, these range from the days and nights of brahma (the cre

GNOSTIC STUDIES THE GNOSTIC HANDBOOK II GNOSTIC THEURGY

interpretation, one of the more complete is futhark. in futhark there is a fully developed symbol system which correlates sound, letters, bodily postures, dates and timing as many other correspondences. both the druidic traditions and the runic seem to have much in common with the ariosophic hebraic forms. while the outer form may vary, the essential gnosis remains the same. the legend of odin in norse mythology odin is the god of magic, his name originates from the anglo-saxon and means pure spirit. he may be equated with thoth and mercury, but has many discrete and unique characteristics. odin is believed to be responsible for bringing runecraft to humanity. as part of his initiatory quest he hung on the world tree (ygdrassill) for nine days and nights and finally, falling from the tree

GRAHAM HANCOCK FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

the time of the flood and covered the whole sky. lightning struck and thunder was heard. yet the drops that fell were not like rain. they were like fire. 26 a monster chased the sun there is one ancient culture that perhaps preserves more vivid memories in its myths than any other; that of the so-called teutonic tribes of germany and scandinavia, a culture best remembered through the songs of the norse scalds and sages. the stories those songs retell have their roots in a past which may be much older than scholars imagine and which combine familiar images with strange symbolic devices and allegorical language to recall a cataclysm of awesome magnitude: in a distant forest in the east an aged giantess brought into the world a whole brood of young wolves whose father was fenrir. one of these

ce. and when the pied piper turns up both in the german myth of hamelin and in mexico long before columbus, and is linked in both places to certain attributes like the colour red, it can hardly be a coincidence. likewise, when one finds numbers like 108, or 9 x 13 reappearing under several multiples in the vedas, in the temples of angkor, in babylon, in heraclitus dark utterances, and also in the norse valhalla, it is not accident..4 connecting the great universal myths of cataclysm, is it possible that such coincidences that cannot be coincidences, and accidents that cannot be accidents, could denote the global influence of an ancient, though as yet unidentified, guiding hand? if so, could it be that same hand, during and after the last ice age, which drew the series of highly accurate an

predominantly concern is the recurrent and persistent transmission of a precessional message in a wide range of ancient myths. and, strangely enough, many of the key images and symbols that crop up in these myths notably those that concern a derangement of the heavens are also to be found embedded in the ancient traditions of worldwide cataclysm reviewed in chapters twentyfour and twenty-five. in norse mythology for example, we saw how the wolf fenrir, whom the gods had so carefully chained up, broke his bonds at last and escaped: he shook himself and the world trembled. the ash-tree yggdrasil was shaken from its roots to its topmost branches. mountains crumbled or split from top to bottom. the earth began to lose its shape. already the stars were coming adrift in the sky. in the opinion o

ar that ominous changes are taking place in the heavens and that the stars, which have come adrift in the sky, are dropping into the void. 3 such celestial imagery, repeated again and again with only relatively minor variations in myths from many different parts of the world, belongs to a category earmarked in hamlet s mill as not mere storytelling of the kind that comes naturally .4 moreover the norse traditions that speak of the monstrous wolf fenrir, and of the shaking of yggdrasil, go on to report the final apocalypse in which the forces of valhalla issue forth on the side of order to participate in the terrible last battle of the gods a battle that will end in apocalyptic destruction: 500 doors and 40 there are i ween, in valhalla s walls; 800 fighters through each door fare, when to

fare, when to war with the wolf they go.5 with a lightness of touch that is almost subliminal, this verse has encouraged us to count valhalla s fighters, thus momentarily obliging us to focus our attention on their total number (540 x 800= 432,000. this total, as we shall see in chapter thirty-one is mathematically linked to the phenomenon of precession. it is, unlikely to have found its way into norse mythology by accident, especially in a context that has previously specified a derangement of the heavens severe enough to have caused the stars to come adrift from their stations in the sky. to understand what is going on here it is essential to grasp the basic imagery of the ancient message that santillana and von dechend claim to have stumbled upon. this imagery transforms the luminous do

ns, this hamlet remains strangely himself. the original amlodhi (or sometimes amleth) as his name was in icelandic legend, shows the same characteristics of melancholy and high intellect. he, too, is a son dedicated to avenge his father, a speaker of cryptic but inescapable truths, an elusive carrier of fate who must yield once his mission is accomplished. 11 in the crude and vivid imagery of the norse, amlodhi was identified 8 yucatan before and after the conquest, p. 82. 9 see, for example, the god-kings and the titans, p. 64. it may also be relevant that other versions of the bacabs myth tell us that their slightest movement produces an earth tremor or even an earthquake (maya history and religion, p. 346. 10 hamlet s mill, p. 2. 11 ibid. graham hancock fingerprints of the gods 244 with

o the osiris myth by chance but were placed there deliberately by people who understood and had accurately measured precession. is sellers right? times of decay the osiris myth is not the only one to incorporate the calculus for precession. the relevant numbers keep surfacing in various forms, multiples and combinations, all over the ancient world. an example was given in chapter thirty-three the norse myth of the 432,000 fighters who sallied forth from valhalla to do battle with the wolf. a glance back at that myth shows that it contains several permutations of precessional numbers. likewise, as we saw in chapter twenty-four, ancient chinese traditions referring to a universal cataclysm were said to have been written down in a great text consisting of precisely 4320 volumes. thousands of

GRIMM JACOB TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL 3

the remnants of our heathenism scattered elsewhere, people made a point of minimizing the value of these few fragments also, and declaring them forged, borrowed, absurd. such few gods as remained unassailed, it was the fashion to make short work of, by treating them as gallic or slavic, just as vagrants are shunted oif to the next parish let our neighbours dispose of the rubbish as they can. the norse edda, whose plan, style and substance vi preface. breathe the renaotest antiquity, avhose songs lay hold of the heart in a far different way from the extravagantly admired poems of ossian, they traced to christian and anglo-saxon influence, blindly or wilfully overlooking its connexion with the relics of eld in germany proper, and thinking to set it all down to nurses and spinning-wives (p

nce bears witness, that the smallest may be an index to the greatest; and the reason is discoverable, why in our antiquities, while the main features were effaced, petty and apparently accidental ones have been preserved. i am loth to let even slight analogies escape me, such as that between bregowine, freawine, and gotes friunt (p. 93. true to my original purpose, i have this time also taken the norse mythology merely as woof, not as warp. it lies near to us, like the norse tongue, which, having stood longer undisturbed in its integrity, gives us a deeper insight into the nature of our own, yet not so that either loses itself wholly in the other, or that we can deny to the german language excellences of its own, and to the gothic a strength superior to both of them together. so the norse

not so that either loses itself wholly in the other, or that we can deny to the german language excellences of its own, and to the gothic a strength superior to both of them together. so the norse view of the gods may in many ways clear up and complete the german, yet not serve as the sole standard for it, since here, as in the language, there appear sundry divergences of the german type from the norse, giving the advantage now to the one and now to the other. had i taken the rich exuberance of the north as the basis of my inquiry, it would have perilously overshadowed and choked the distinctively german, which ought rather to be developed out of itself, and, while often agreeing with the other, yet in some things stands opposed. the case appears therefore to stand thus, that, as we push o

ge now to the one and now to the other. had i taken the rich exuberance of the north as the basis of my inquiry, it would have perilously overshadowed and choked the distinctively german, which ought rather to be developed out of itself, and, while often agreeing with the other, yet in some things stands opposed. the case appears therefore to stand thus, that, as we push on, we shall approach the norse boundary, and at length reach the point where the wall of separation can be pierced, and the two mythologies run together into one greater whole. if at present some new points of connexion have been established, more important diversities have revealed themselves too. to the norse antiquarians in particular, i hope my procedure will be acceptable: as we gladly give to them in return for what

ablished, more important diversities have revealed themselves too. to the norse antiquarians in particular, i hope my procedure will be acceptable: as we gladly give to them in return for what we have received, they ought no less to receive than to give. our memorials are preface. ix scantier, but older; theirs are younger and purer; two things it was important here to hold fast: fii'st, that the norse mythology is genuine, and so must the german be; then, that the german is old, and so must the norse be. we have never had an edda come down to us, nor did any one of our early writers attempt to collect the remains of the heathen faith. such of the christians as had sucked german milk were soon weaned under roman training from memories of home, and endeavoured not to preserve, but to efface

, and had to be dug out. their footmarks were to be traced, partly in names that had stubbornly refused to be rooted out, yet offered little more than their bare sound; partly, under some altered guise, in the more fluid but fuller form of the folk-tale. this last applies more to the goddesses, the former to the gods. gods and heroes are found in the very names of runes, the first of which in old norse is freyr, others are thor, zio, eor, asc, man, but nowhere goddesses. the gods that have kept the firmest hold are the three marked in the days of the week as mercury, jupiter, mars; and of these, wuotan stands out the most distinct. jonas, fredegar, paulus diaconus and the abrenuntiatio name him, he towers at the head of ancient lines of kings, many places bear the indelible impress of his

aconus and the abrenuntiatio name him, he towers at the head of ancient lines of kings, many places bear the indelible impress of his name. woedenspanne signified a part of the human hand, as the north named another part' lilf-lisr' wolf-lith, after the god t^r. unexpectedly our 13th centuiy has preserved for us vol. 111. b xviil peeface. one of his names [wish, which lies in abeyance even in the norse system, yet is the one that stands in the closest contact with the women that do the god's bidding, with the wand that unlocks his hoard, with the mantle that carries him through the air, nay, is the only one that puts all these in the true light. the norse name omi is not quite so clearly explained by the as. woma, though the word marks unmistakably the stormful god whom we know more certai

ds (p. 146-7. as longbeard, the god deep-sunk in his mountain-sleep is reproduced in the royal heroes charles and frederick: wlio better than wuotan, on whose shoulder they sit and bring him thoughts and tidings, was entitled to inquire after the flying ravens? eavens and wolves scented his march to victory, and they above all other animals have entered into the proper names of the people. in the norse sagas the questioner is a blind graybeard, who just as plainly is old osin again. father of victory, he is likewise god of blessing and bliss, i.e. wish over again, whose place is afterwards occupied by salida (well-being. since he appears alike as god of poetry, of measurement, of the span, of the boundary and of the dicethrow, all gifts, treasures, arts may be regarded as having proceeded

so many conjectures that i will not add to their number here. if, as appears most likely, he is synonymous with paltar (balder, he must pass for a god of light, but also of fire, and again of tempest; under another view he haunted wells and springs. he approximates the higher elemental powers, and could the more easily be perverted into a diabolic being. equally lost to germany is the name of the norse loki, who represents fire in another xx peeface. aspect, and was still better qualified to stand for the devil. the stories of his artfulness, his cunning tricks, have reproduced themselves repeatedly in all branches of our race. i now turn to the goddesses. a mother of gods, nerthus, is named to us by tacitus; her name is the exact counterpart to that of a norse god, who confirms her existe

mple from the dental xxll preface. functions. how wuotan, donar, and zio partly run into one another has been shewn; logi (lowe, blaze) becomes lol?i (lock, bolt, g becomes h, the sense of fire is exchanged for that of bolts and bars (of hell, as hamar and hera came to signify the implements they used. we have seen wuotan reappear in longbearded charles, in red-bearded frederick. on comparing the norse hero-legend with the german, we see remarkable instances of this shifting and displacement of names and persons. gudrun in the edda occupies the place of our krimhilt, while grimhildr is her mother's name; in the yilkinasaga mimir is the smith and keginn the dragon, in the volsungasaga reginn is the smith and fafnir the dragon. if these changes took place at haphazard, there would be nothing

ature, if we could ascei-tain how far the celtic worship of mercury differed from the roman; to all appearance that deity was greater to the celts and germans than hermes-mercury was to the greeks and romans; to trismegistus and tervagan i allude on p. 150. all that is left us of the celtic religion, even in stray fragments, bespeaks a more finished mental culture than is to be found in german or norse mythology; there comes out in it more of priestly lore. but in respect of genius and epic matter our memorials are incomparably superior. as the celts enclose us on the west, so do the slavs on the east; and slavic writers, like the celtic, are rather fond, wherever their ancient faith coincides with ours, of interpreting things from a slavic point of view, which can just as well be explaine

en the languages. more results have already been attained in finland, whose people, comparable in this to the servians alone, have in their mouths to this day a most wonderful store of songs and tales, though in servian poetry the heroic legend predominates, and in finnic the myth. merely by what ganander, porthan and now lonnrot have published, an immense deal is bridged over between the german, norse, slav, greek and asiatic mythologies. rask (in afhand. 1, 96) had already derived some norse names of giants from finnic. and further, the distinction we made between legend and fairy-tale does not at all apply as yet to this finnic poetry: it stands at an older stage, where the marvels of the fairy-tale without any sense of incongruity mingle with the firmer basis of the folk-tale, and even

GRIMM TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL 2 1883 COMPLETE

e is a number of ancient terms corresponding in sense to our present word riese (giant. 2 1 not a trace of the finer features of gods is to be seen in the titans. mullet s proleg. 373. 2 some are mere circumlocutions (a counterpart to those quoted on p 450) der groze man, er. 5330. der michel man, er. 5475. der michel knabe, iw. 5056. 518 ezan, eoten. 519 the oldest and most comprehensive term in norse is idtunn, pi. iotnar (not jotunn, jotnar; it is backed up by an as. eaten, pi. eotenas, beow. 223 (eotena cyn, 836. eotonisc, 5953, or eten, lye sub v; ob. etin, ettin, nares sub v; scot, ettyn, eyttyn, jamieson sub v; an os. etan, eten can be inferred with certainty from the name of a place in old docs, efcanasfeld, etenesfeld (campus gigantis, wigand s archiv i. 4, 85. moser nos. 2. 13. 1

ill and d. the child, the holy d. bless this wound away [the posture is that of humpty dumpty. this seems pointed at a sluggish mountain-giant, and we shall see how folk-tales of a later period name the giants ditmme dutten; the term lubbe, lubbe likewise indicates their clumsy lubberly nature, and when we nowadays call the devil dumm (stupid, a quondam giant is really meant (see suppl. 1 yet the norse lays contain one feature favourable to the giants. they stand as specimens of a fallen or falling race, which with the strength combines also the innocence and wisdom of the old world, an intelligence more objective and imparted at creation than self-acquired. this half- regretful view of giants prevails particularly in one of the finest poems of the edda, the etymisqvrsa. hymir 2 is called

giants. iotunn/ sa3m. 35a> b; fenja and menja are framvisar (grottas. 1, 13. when the verb]?reya, usually meaning exspectare, desiderare, is employed as characteristic of giants (sasm. 8sa, it seems to imply a dreamy brooding, a half-drunken complacency and immobility (see suppl. such a being, when at rest, is good-humoured and unhandy, 1 but when provoked, gets wild, spiteful and violent. norse legend names this rage of giants iotunmodr, which pits itself in defiance against asmosr, the rage of the gods: vera i iotunmosi/ sn. 150b. when their wrath is kindled, the giants hurl rocks, rub stones till they catch fire (roth. 1048, squeeze water out of stones (kinderm. no. 20. asbiornsen s moe, no. 6, root up trees (kinderm. no. 90, twist fir-trees together like willows (no. 166, and st

m. no. 20. asbiornsen s moe, no. 6, root up trees (kinderm. no. 90, twist fir-trees together like willows (no. 166, and stamp on the ground till their leg is buried up to the knee (roth. 9-13. yilk. saga, cap. 60: in this plight they are chained up by the heroes in whose service they are to be, and only let loose against the enemy in war, e.g. witolt or witolf (roth. 760. yilk. saga, cap. 50. one norse giant, whose story we know but imperfectly, was named beli (the bellower; him freyr struck dead with his fist for want of his sword, and thence bore the name of bani belja/ sn. 41. 74. their relation to gods and men is by turns friendly and hostile. idtunheimr lies far from asaheimr, yet visits are paid on both sides. it is in this connexion that they sometimes leave on us the impression of

sa is his tw lf^nt6;^110011011111118; mhg ungevilege, applied to giants, nib. 45g, 1. kua ^geviiege knabe, er. 5552; knabe, as in der rnichel kuabe/p 518n giants, 531 wife. the gods associate with oegir the iotunn, and by him are bidden to a banquet. giants again sue for asms, as thrymr for freyja, while thiassi carries off isunn. hrungnir asks for freyja or sif, sn. 107. starka^sr is henchman to norse kings; in bother s army fight the giants asperian (asbiorn, osbern) and witolt. among the &ses the great foe of giants is thorr, who like jupiter inflicts on them his thunder-wounds; l his hammer has crushed the heads of many: were it not for thorr, says a scandinavian proverb, the giants would get the upper hand; 2 he vanquished hrungnir, etymir, thrymr, geirro^r, and it is not all the lege

pl. st. oiaf too keeps up a hot pursuit of the giant race; in this business heathen and christian heroes are at one. in our heroic legend sigenot, ecke, fasolt succumb to dietrich s human strength, yet other giants are companions of dietrich, notably wittich and heime, as asperian was rother s. the kings niblunc and schilbunc had twelve strong giants for friends (nib. 95, i.e. for vassals, as the norse kings often had twelve berserks. but, like the primal woods and monstrous beasts of the olden time, the giants do get gradually extirpated off the face of the earth, and with all heroes giant-fighting alternates with dragon-fighting. 3 king frofti had two captive giant-maidens fenja and menja as mill-maids; the grist they had to grind him out of the quern grotti was gold and peace, and he al

n 4, 32. the indian mahabharata also represents hidimbas the rakshasa (giant) x as a man-eater, misshapen and red-bearded: man s flesh he smells from afar, 2 and orders hidimba his sister to fetch it him; bat she, like the monster s wife or daughter in the nursery-tales, pities and befriends the slumbering hero (see suppl. our own giant-stories know nothing of this grim thirst for blood, even the norse iotunn is nowhere depicted as a cannibal, like the greek and oriental giants; our giants are a great deal more genial, and come nearer to man s constitution in their shape and their way of thinking: their savagery spends itself mainly in hurling huge stones, removing mountains and rearing colossal buildings. saxo gram. pp. 10. 11 invests the giantess harthgrepa with the power to make herself

bl. 1, 122) regards riese and recke (hero) as all one. 3 schafarik (slov. star. 1, 258) sees nothing in them but geta and thyrsus; at that rate the national name thussagetae must include both. chapter xix. creation. now that we have treated of gods, heroes, elves, and giants, we are at length prepared to go into the views of ancient times on cosmogony. and here i am the more entitled to take the norse ideas for a groundwork, as indications are not wanting of their having equally prevailed among the other teutonic races. before the creation of heaven and earth, there was an immense chasm called gap (hiatus, gaping, or by way of emphasis gap ginnunga (chasm of chasms, corresponding in sense to the greek p^tto. 1 for, as %ao? means both abyss and darkness, so ginnunga- gap seems also to deno

e connexion between nifl, nifllieim, and the nibelungen so intergrown with our epos (p. 372) does not in any case admit of doubt. now if these two poles of the scandinavian chaos entered into the belief of all teutonic nations, the notion of creation as a whole must have been as widely spread. it has been shewn that the old-german opinion about giants, gods, men and dwarfs closely agreed with the norse; i am now able further to produce, though in inverted order, the same strange connexion described in the edda between a giant s body and the world s creation. four documents, lying far apart in respect of time and place (and these may some day be reinforced by others) transmit to us a notable account of the creation of the first man. but, while the edda uses up the giant s gutted and dismemb

etc/ these distinctions between lime, clay, earth and slime have a tang of heathenism; the poet durst not entirely depart from, the creation as set forth by the church, but that compounding of man out of several materials appears to be still known to him. and traces of it are met with in the folk-poetry. 1 it is significant how greek and, above all, asiatic myths of the creation coincide with the norse (and what i believe to have been once the universal teutonic) view of the world s origin out of component parts of the human body: it must therefore be of remote antiquity. the story lasts in india to this day, that brahma was slain by the other gods, and the sky made out of his skull: there is some analogy to this in the greek notion of atlas supporting on his head the vault of heaven. acco

waterfalls were doubtless held in special vene ration; they were thought to be put in motion by a superior being, a river-sprite. the danube whirlpool and others still have separate legends of their own. plutarch (in his caesar, cap. 19) and clement of alex (stromat. 1, 305) assure us that the german prophetesses watched the eddies of rivers, and by their whirl and noise explored the future. the norse name for such a vortex is fors, dan. fos, and the isl. sog. 1, 226 expressly say, blotafti forsin (worshipped the. the legend of the river- sprite fossegrim was touched upon, p. 493; and in such a fors dwelt the dwarf andvari (seem. 180. fornald. sog. 1, 152. but animal sacrifices seem to have been specially due to the whirlpool (80/09, as the black lamb (or goat) to the fossegrim; arid the

rifice a fowl to it (82. a distinction seems to have been made between friendly and malignant fires; among the former the greeks reckoned brimstone fire, as they call sulphur oelov, divine smoke (ii. 8, 135. od. 22, 481. 493. in 0. fr. poems i often find such forms of cursing as: mal feu arde! tristr. 3791; maus feus et male flambe m arde 1 meon 3, 227. 297. ren. 19998. this evil fire is what the norse loki represents; and as loki or the devil breaks loose, we say, when a fire begins, that it breaks loose, breaks out, gets out, as if from chains and prison: worde viir los/ doc. in sartorius s hanse p. 27; in lower germany an alarm of fire was given in the words fiir los! on. einn neisti (spark) war$ laus/ forms of exorcism treat fire as a hostile higher being, whom one must encounter with

HINE P OVEN READY CHAOS

il he was thoroughly spock-ified. and he got an a, so there! and so, back to the cthulhu mythos. lovecraft himself was of the opinion that fear, particularly fear of the unknown, was the strongest emotion attached to the great old ones. the reason why i like to work with that mythos occasionally is that the great old ones are outside most human mythologies, reflecting the shadows of the giants in norse myths, the pre- olympian titans in greek myths, and other groups of universebuilders who are thought to be too chaotic for the polite company of the gods of the ordered universe. for me too, the nature of the great old ones as shadowy beings who can only be partially glimpsed is attractive- they can t be assimilated and bound into any orthodox systems of magick and i get much fun from workin

ISIS UNVEILED

her does the scandinavian hd or hela imply either a state or a place of punishment; for when frigga, the grief-stricken mother of balder, the white god, who died and found himself in the dark abodes of the shadows (hades, sent hermod, a son of thor, in quest of her beloved child, the messenger found mm in the uiexorbble region ^alast but still comfortably seated on a rock, and reading a book" the norse kingdom ta the dead is moreover situated in the higher latitudes of the polar regions; it is a cold and cheerless abode, and neither the gelid halls of hela nor the occupation of balder present the least similitude to the blazing hell of eternal fire and the miserable' damned' sinners with which the church so generously peoples it. neither is it the egyptian ameriti, the region of judgment a

JASMUHEEN THE FOOD OF GODS

ery of life and to the unknowable, to let it flow and to trust a higher flow to bring us what we need. nu kua. dragon goddess and restorer of universal order of the hopei, shansi people of northern china. she assists us in creating order from chaos. valkyrie. ancient bird goddess, giving life, death, regeneration. represents our fearless self and can lead us through darkness so that we grow. hel. norse goddess of the underworld, a place of renewal and the embodiment of divine mystery. teaches us to look behind the masks in life and beyond appearance. eve. mother and nurturer of all life, creator of the world and all living beings. represents rebirth and regeneration, embodies primal female creative energy. gaia. the eternal pre-historic earth mother goddess of the soul who clothes us with

JENNINGS HARGRAVE ROSICRUCIANS RITES MYSTERIES

relic of the times when one religion prevailed in latium and hindustan. it is most singular that the hindoo cross is precisely the hammer of thor. all our speculations tend to the same conclusion. one day, it is a discovery of cinerary vases; the next, it is etymological research; yet again, it is ethnological investigation; and, the day after, it is the publication of unsuspected tales from the norse: but all go to heap up the proofs of our consanguinity with the peoples of history, and of an original general belief, we might add. what meaneth the altar, with its mysterious lights? what mean the candles of the catholic worship, burning even by day, borne in the sunshine, blazing at noon? what meaneth this visible fire, as an element at mass, or at service at all? wherefore is this thing

LEWIS JAMES SATANISM TODAY AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION FOLKLORE AND POPULAR CULTURE

ailed to honor his contract when he sold his soul to the devil. angel of death the notion of an angel or demon who extracts the soul from the body at death seems to have developed from earlier notions of divinities of death. such figures are widespread in world culture. in hinduism, for example, yama is the god of the dead. in the earliest vedic texts, yama ruled an afterlife realm not unlike the norse valhalla in which the deceased enjoyed carnal pleasures. as hinduism was transformed in the post-vedic period, yama became a rather grim demigod, who snared the souls of the departed and conducted them to the otherworld. the notion of an angel of death was most fully developed in rabbinical judaism. like yama, the jewish idea of an angel of death developed across time. the biblical emissarie

as satanists and/or as nazis. in a few cases, the antagonism to christianity has boiled over into actual attacks, such as vandalizing graves and burning churches. these extreme acts are referred to as esoterrorism, or esoteric terrorism.at least two black metal bands, burzum and emperor, were involved in such activities. the leader of burzum, who had converted from satanism to a neo-nazi form of norse neopaganism, was eventually sent to jail for his involvement in the burning of at least ten churches and the iron maiden, 7 july 1998 (mitchell gerber/corbis) heavy metal music 107 murder of another musician. he continues to be popular among black metalists, writing articles and music from prison. mayhem, the band who lost a member to the founder of burzum, is perhaps the most influential no

er rising: sin, devil worship and rock n roll. london: plexus, 1999. paul,william. laughing screaming: modern hollywood horror and comedy. new york: columbia university press, 1994. tudor, andrew.monsters and mad scientists: a cultural history of the horror movie. oxford, uk: basil blackwell, 1989. runes runes refer to the alphabets devised in northern europe by the nordic and celtic peoples. the norse runes are sometimes called the futhark, those being the first six letters in that alphabet. the irish runes are usually called ogham. despite claims about the originality of these systems of writing, the current scholarly consensus is that these systems, like the systematizing of the irish and nordic myths, were imitations of greek and latin models. currently there is a significant popular i

runes are usually called ogham. despite claims about the originality of these systems of writing, the current scholarly consensus is that these systems, like the systematizing of the irish and nordic myths, were imitations of greek and latin models. currently there is a significant popular interest in the runes as a system of divination, particularly among individuals with an interest in ancient norse mythology and spirituality, including satanists with nazi leanings. the classical authors who mention the runes note they were used for divination, but otherwise provide no details on the practice. this gap in our knowledge has been addressed during the last twenty-five years by popular authors who have advanced speculative systems for divination by means of the runes. sets of runes carved o

LINDOW JOHN NORSE MYTHOLOGY A GUIDE TO THE GODS HEROES RITUALS AND BELIEFS

with its gentle baltic sea coast and a great deal of fertile land, especially in the central parts of sweden, around the lakes malaren, vannern, and vattern, and to the south. on the west lies norway, where tall mountains spring from the coast, which is protected from the atlantic by a series of small islands. to the south lies denmark, which until 1658 included not only jutland and the islands 2 norse mythology but also southern portions of the scandinavian peninsula. the names are indicative: norway, the northern way, the sea route up and down the coast; denmark, the forest of the danes, which separated them from the saxons; sweden, the kingdom of the svear, the people around malaren who at some point during the viking age subdued their southern neighbors in gotaland. the name gscandinav

ntroduction 3 the period circa 600.800 c.e. is usually called the younger germanic iron age, although swedish archaeologists usually called it the vendel period because of the wealth of finds from vendel, an area northeast of lake malaren. during this period, too, there was extensive trade from across the baltic centered at helgo, then an island in the southern part of lake malaren. and in den- 4 norse mythology buckle clasp in silver, gold, and precious stones from admark, norway, seventh century c.e (the art archive/historiska museet norway/dagli orti) mark it appears that a danish state was already beginning to establish itself in jutland. between circa 600 and 800 c.e, a number of linguistic changes occurred in the northern area of the germanic speech community, and by the end of this

of status and influence but of little direct power. people lived on farms, and the basic social unit was the household. so important was this principle of household membership that people could switch from one household to another only at certain specified times of the year, the gmoving days. h farming consisted primarily of raising cattle and the hay that would be needed to support the cattle. 6 norse mythology some english jet was exported from yorkshire to norway during the viking age. this carving of a pair of bear-like gripping beasts brings to mind related examples in amber (historisk museum, bergen universitetet) the viking age is by definition a period when scandinavians and europeans interacted, and without that interaction and the written documents it gave rise to in europe, arch

ing. before and after the church brought manuscript writing to the north, there was some writing using the native runic writing system. since in the older runic alphabet there are no horizontal strokes, it is assumed that the system was originally invented for scratching the letters on wooden sticks, whose grain would obscure horizontal strokes. only special circumstances permit wood to remain 10 norse mythology compare this rune stone with a cross to the one on page 8 (statens historika museum, stockholm) undecayed in the ground for archaeologists to dig up centuries later, and as a result most (but by no means all) of the extant runic inscriptions are on stones. it is important to stress that carving on wood or stone is a fairly laborious process and that the kinds of things recorded usi

sometimes joined or interrupted by prose passages, arranged in a deliberate order by the unknown scribe who wrote it, an order that moves from the mythological to the heroic. it is ordered within the mythological and heroic sections as well. the manuscript begins with voluspa (prophecy of the seeress, which gives a summary of the entire mythology, from the origin of the cosmos to its destruc- 12 norse mythology tion to its rebirth. voluspa can also be regarded as an odin poem, since it is odin who causes the seeress voicing it to speak. the following three poems are also odin poems: havamal (words of the high one, which contains odinic wisdom and several stories that describe the acquisition of that wisdom; vafthrudnismal (words of vafthrudnir, which describes the context of wisdom betwee

ities outweigh the differences and that the pictures of the gods are fairly consistent. in form, the eddic poems are short stanzaic poems that rely chiefly on two meters, fornyr.islag, gold way of composing, h and ljo.ahattr, gsong meter. h fornyr.islag is equivalent to the verse form used in old english, old high german, and old saxon, the other germanic languages in which verse has been pre- 14 norse mythology served, although the division into stanzas appears to be a scandinavian innovation. like the poems in the second half of codex regius of the poetic edda, verse in old english and old high german is about heroes, and even the major surviving example of old saxon, a verse life of christ called heliand (savior, exhibits heroic diction. heroic eddic poetry, then, especially when it use

runarson, about whom nothing is known.not even his nationality.other than that he was patronized by hakon sigurdarson, jarl of hladir, a notorious pagan. eilif composed thorsdrapa, a complex and difficult account of thor fs journey to geirrod. besides these poems treating mythological subjects, there are numerous other relevant texts and fragments. a poem like sonatorrek (loss of sons) by egil 16 norse mythology skallagrimsson, the tenth-century hero of egils saga, may tell us something about his own religious attitudes. gran has robbed me greatly, h he says, alluding to the drowning death of one of his sons. in skaldic poetry, thor is the most frequent mythological subject. the most tantalizing of these are two verses addressing thor in the second person, both probably from the last years

for it sets forth more clearly than in any other place some of the principles of skaldic poetry. after it there follows a paragraph inviting young skalds to pay attention to the narratives that follow if they wish to learn skaldic poetry, but reminding them that christians are not to believe in pagan gods or the literal truth of the narratives. this can hardly be bragi fs voice; rather, it is 18 norse mythology that of snorri or, arguably, one of his copyists, and it intrudes on the framing device of a dialogue between agir and bragi. that device is taken up again when snorri introduces the story of thor fs duel with hrungnir and of thor fs journey to geirrod, but thereafter it is dropped. additional mythic narratives in skaldskaparmal include the acquisition from one set of dwarfs of sif

stphalia. traveling through reidgotaland, gwhich is now called jutland, h he establishes the skjoldungar as the kings of denmark. his final destination is sweden. gthat king is there who is named gylfi. and when he hears of the journey of those asia-men, who were called asir, he went to meet them and invited odin to take as much power in his kingdom as he wished, and those good times went with 22 norse mythology them, that wherever they stayed in lands, there was peace and prosperity, and everyone believed that they were the cause of that. h odin settles in sigtunir (modern sigtuna, on lake malaren south of uppsala) and establishes his sons saming as king of norway and yngvi as king of sweden after him. although the medieval icelandic word asir (sing, ass) etymologically has nothing to do

orm. here i see the key to this ghistorical h odin of snorri, for this is a classic description of a shamanic trance and journey. if snorri fs historical odin was a shaman from tyrkland, he was just a charismatic version of the sami shamans who are described in the medieval scandinavian historical record. to cite but one example among a great many, historia norvegiae (history of norway, a work 24 norse mythology composed presumably in norway before 1211, describes a shamanic trance and journey to the world of the spirits witnessed by norwegian traders among the sami people in the norwegian mountains. the author describes the event as though it were fact, as indeed it was for medieval scandinavians. odin did not have to be a god to do what snorri has him do in ynglinga saga. snorri says exp

in jutland, and that he was a member of the household of absalon, who was archbishop of lund from 1178.1201. some of the gesta seems to have been written before the death of absalon; the rest was probably completed after 1216, or in other words, just a few years before snorri began his mythological project. saxo fs history consists of 16 books, of which the first 8 treat pagan denmark and the 26 norse mythology second 8, christian denmark. the first books are therefore, like ynglinga saga, set in prehistory, and gods and heroes play a major role that continues down through the ninth book. saxo offered a theory of euhemerism similar to that of snorri, for he says in book 1 that odin was a man falsely believed to be a god. hod has become a human king, but baldr is a demigod, and sometimes s

d the start of our era, or in proto-indo-european, the parent language of proto- germanic. neither of these languages has left any texts, and what we know of them is reconstructed by linguists. for example, according to linguists, the name godin, h medieval icelandic o.inn, derives from a word that would mean something like gleader of the possessed. h we cannot be sure what ty lr fs name meant 28 norse mythology soapstone mold for making both thor fs hammer and the christian cross (national museum of denmark) stamped gold foil from norway depicts embracing figures (historisk museum, bergen universitetet) in proto-germanic, but in proto-indo-european it was probably a word for ggod h or gsky. h this may suggest that ty lr is an older god than odin, but such a surmise hardly helps us to unde

MARS COCIDIUS AND THE REDCAPS IN LANCASHIRE

alls ancestor anthony hall of ellershaw was hung with 100 of his men at berwick assizes in 1598 by lord henry scope warden of the west march after the redesdale hunting incident. the families survivors were driven out of redesdale but were granted land and sanctuary in westmorland by sir richard lowther sheriff of cumberland who had no love for scrope. lancashire and westmorland were colonised by norse settlers during the 9th century, they established the kingdom of mann and the isles and the west derby hundred where my father s family have lived for more than 20 generations. in 901 the gallgael earl ingimund landed on the wirral with eighteen longships and took posession of the land having been granted it by ethelflaeda queen of the mercians. the gallgael were the half norse and half iris

ed on the wirral with eighteen longships and took posession of the land having been granted it by ethelflaeda queen of the mercians. the gallgael were the half norse and half irish occupants of dublin who had been driven out by harold finehair, king of the newly unified norway. the gallgael went on to establish the kingdom of mann and the isles and the hundred of west derby. my own family name is norse in origin as indeed are many of the south lancashire family names and almost all the place names. lancashire also has a strong celtic and roman heritage. lancashire with cumberland, westmorland and west yorkshire formed the kingdom of brigantia. the brigantes a spanish celtic tribe arrived durin g the iron-age via ireland; where brigantes remained in the province of ulster (the sedantes to w

ut 450, so either not all the forces were withdrawn in 410, or they had been replaced by 450. it is worth noting that bishop germanus who visited britain twice in the mid 5th century was a military count before being elected as a bishop and may well have brought an army with him. the province of valentia was later the romano-british kingdom of rheged which persisted until it was overthrown by the norse kings of york. modern research of inscriptions (of which more than 8,000 remain) and surviving texts has shown that the extent and quality of latin literacy in western and northern britain was higher than anywhere else in the empire even rome at this time. this coupled with evidence of extensive re-building in the cities during the 5th and 6th centuries implies that far from declining romano

MASTERING WITCHCRAFT

gar of the danes reads. the story of ancient wars between good and evil, the opening of the waters, the flood sweeping the giants away, how they suffered, and died, that race who hated the ruler of us all, and received judgement from his hands, surging waves that found them wherever they fled] beowulf, translated by burton raffel (mentor books u.s.a. 1963- we again find traces of this lore in the norse legend of the giants' revolt, and similarly in greek mythology concerning the gods' dealings with the rebellious titans. it is a persistent theme. the zohar intimates, however, that though most of the giants yielded up their lives in the flood, many of their spirits partaking as they did of the angelic nature of their fathers, proved indestructible, and lived on, invisible yet powerful even

hing really complicated like diancecht, osmandine, or ansuperomin! the choice is yours. you must find one that appeals to you, that calls forth your feeling for the unseen world, gives you a thrill, and frankly makes you feel considerably powerful and no less sinister! should you not wish to use a name from legend, you may try toying with those of the gods and demigods of mythology. greek, roman, norse, celtic whichever you wish. a very good lead in these matters can be provided by finding out your astrological birth sign and planet and looking up the legends that surround them. for instance, if you are an artist or craftsman born under the sign of taurus, you may well decide on the name of daedalus, being that of the wizard-craftsman of king minos, leader of the cretan bull cult, thus lin

le cord i shall consider last. the witch jewels the necklace, the bracelet, the ring and pendant, the girdle cord and garter the necklace: the necklace is worn by women coven members often at sabbats and esbats only. it is in all probability of similar derivation to that of the girdle or garter some witches say that it has a connection with "brisingamen" the elven necklace possessed by freya, the norse love goddess. others say that through its occasional use of acorns as beads, it derives from the worship of diana of ephesus, whose devotees saw the head of their goddess bound with a coif of hair in the shape of the acorn itself. the number of beads for the necklace often consists of multiples of nine or thirteen. acorns aside, however, the beads may be made of any material you please metal

in view of this, he is often represented carrying a blazing torch or candle on his head, which has sprung from between his antlers, in addition to the one he carries in his hand. he is known by a variety of names to witches in addition to that of lucifer: cernunnos, mamilion, robin, dumus, hu, janus or dianus, barabbon or barabbas among others. his symbolism is partly akin to that of thunor, the norse thunder god of battle, and again of pan and dionysus, the classical gods of ecstatic debauch and revelry. in his alignment with fire, he evokes memories of vulcan (hephaestus) and wayland smith. as vulcan is the suitor of venus and pan of diana, so is the horned one the pursuer of habondia. however, many witches who belong to female-oriented covens which focus their attentions more on the go

indicates a bias towards the lady habondia. all of these witch beings, whether they are seen as independent entities or aspects of two single deities, possess animals and symbols special to themselves, and it is from these appropriate images that you should draw your coven "totems" and "logo" or composite symbol. books of mythology can be very helpful here- for those of european inclination, the norse myths; the welsh-celtic traditions as presented in the mabinogion, the irish-celtic in the book of the dun cow, the yellow book of lecan, and the book of leinster; and, finally, the matter of britain as presented in such works of the arthurian cycle as the high history of the holy grail, and the like (see the bibliography at the end of the book for more suggestions on this point) for those t

s replaced by oil lamps or lanterns. the chain dance itself probably celebrates the transformation of the seasons, and its device is that of the pursuit of an animal by a predator. the season, represented by either the god or goddess, changes shape repeatedly in an attempt to avoid capture. this magical shape-shifting theme is a very ancient one, and it turns up in innumerable traditions- celtic, norse, greek, and even creeps into the arabian nights. sometimes the male is the pursuer, other times the female. the coven god or goddess orientation generally indicates whether the magister or the high priestess leads the dance. the traditional style seems to be the high priestess in the lead, with the summoner next followed by the coven and the magister bringing up the rear. the dance itself be

MICHAEL FORD WITCHMOON

andic folklore, the creature would always incarnate in it's old flesh or the flesh of some dead near it. the term ghost would often be used to describe it, despite it's manifestation in a dead body. the draugr was said as well to have the psychic powers of foreseeing the future, controlling weather (which other vampiric beings and witches always seemed to have control over) and shape shifting. in norse mythology the belief in such creatures is frequently encountered. it so seemed that these beings were spawn of hel (2, of which many could not escape from their graves and existed in a similar way to central european nosferatu, nachzehrer and so on. such creatures in norse mythology were called "haugbui" which translates to "barrow, being mound dweller. germany holds a large amount of folklo

of each spirit associated with each element are given below: notes categorized by chapter chapter one 1. lucem fero, the light bringer known as lucifer. christian symbolism has battened a more sinister view upon this figure. a skillful presentation of lucifer is given in aleister crowley s poem, hymn to lucifer and kenneth anger s lucifer rising, a film based upon the torch bearer. 2. hel is the norse- pagan goddess of the underworld. 3. see the book of pleasure by austin osman spare. 4. dracula was a woman by raymond macnalley. 5. lord of the forest is a symbol of the devil, the horned god of beasts. lord of life, fertility and strength, who is often connected to capricornus, or pan. 6. the wolf skin holds reference to shaman cultures of germany and scandinavia. man seeking the spirit of

MICHAEL TSARION ATLANTIS ALIEN VISITATION AND GENETIC MANIPULATION

rucare indians of bolivia speak of the demon aymasune whodestroyed plants, animals, and man by causing fire to fall from heaven. the algonkian indians relate:long ago, two powerful manitous felt themselves insulted by the hero wisaka. this put theminto a fearful passion and intending to kill their enemy, they raged and roared over theearth, which heaved and shook under their angry steps. from the norse edda, we read:then saw she wade in heavy streams, men foul murderers and perjurers, and them whoothers wives seduce to sin, brothers slay brothers; sisters children shed each others blood.hard is the world, sensual sin grows huge. these are the sword-ages, axe-ages, shields arecleft in twain, storm-ages, murder-ages- till the world falls dead. the norse legends tell of the great winters of w

priestesses, the same:there saw she wade in the heavy streams, men- foul murderers and perjurers, and them whoothers wives seduce to sin, brothers slay brothers; sisters children shed each other s blood.hard is the world, sensual sin grows huge. there the sword-ages, axe-ages; shields are cleftin twain; storm ages, murder-ages; till the world falls dead and men no longer spare or pityone another (norse elder edda: the prophesy of the goddess v ala, page 416, norsemythology by anderson. but despite the histories, despite the statistics, and the vehemence of the suppressionand crime, there are still those who think that evil being endemic can be assuagedthrough time, when the good continue to generate enough love and forgiveness andbegin embracing the darkness and even the dark ones themselv

ians and akkadiansindians (indra versus vritra and the battles between the asas and the asuras or gods and demons)russianscelts (in the deluge of ogyges and the journey of bran, of the coming of the tuatha de dannan, the creation of the isle of man, etc.scriptures and texts that mention earth devastationbooks of genesis, job, and revelationthe ramayana and the mahabharatathe shastrasthe v edasthe norse eddathe zed avesta (of the persians)the codex chimalpopoca (of the toltecs)welsh triads, visuddhi magga (of the buddhists)discourse on the seven suns (buddhist)annals of cuauhtitlan (mayan)the ipuwer papyrus (egyptian)the ermitage papyrus (egyptian)there are over 40,000 texts that mention atlantis, the gods, and the cataclysms they created.people from the east claim descent from the west and

s passed through the gaseous prolongation of acomets tail, and that hundreds of human beings lost their lives, somewhat as they perished in the age offire and gravel, burned up and poisoned by its exhalations (p. 408) at last an evil one, denominated ahriman, corrupted the world. after having dared to visit heaven he descended upon the earth and assumed the form of a serpent (from zend avesta)the norse legendsy et, before all things, there existed what we call muspelheim. it is a world luminous, glowing, not to bedwelt in by strangers, and situate at the end of the earth. surtur holds his empire there. in his hand thereshines a flaming sword.muspel muspel is the lands of the south. connects with tolkiens numenor, with arcadia and ultima thule.viracocha of perucalled the white one. he const

ated: his artful hands brought forth the winding serpentnashon (people of the serpent)a tribe within judaism, of which david was a member. is this where we get the word, nation?asgardsame as the semitic eden, a place of gardens and temples. the abode of the gods.the asasa race of intelligent giants that must have been mortal since it is said that they perished also in the greatconflagrations. the norse custom of setting their dead onto the waters in a boat is a vestige of the timewhen the race sought the land of the gods, during or after the cataclysms.adima and hevathe primal couple in the bhagavad gita, created by brahma. when, under the inspiration of the prince of demons, adima and heva begin to wander, and desire toleave their island (p. 383)no sooner did they touch the shore, than tr

and convulsions will be so terrible that the whole earth will tilt,overburdened as it is with people and things, and slip into the sea.this legend mentions the serpent serving the creator god. this serpent resembles ananta shesha, whoserves vishnu as a bed and supports the universal structure. they are both situated at the bottom of theuniverse on the great ocean called garbhodaka. scandinaviathe norse ragnarok involves the destruction of the earth and the abodes of the norse demigods (calledasgard. it is said that during ragnarok the world is destroyed with flames by a being called surt, wholives beneath the lower world (appropriately called hel) and was involved in the world's creation. bycomparison, the bhagavata purana (3.11.30) states that at the end of brahma's day, the devastationta

on. bycomparison, the bhagavata purana (3.11.30) states that at the end of brahma's day, the devastationtakes place due to the fire emanating from the mouth of sankarshana. sankarshana (ananta shesha) isa plenary expansion of krishna who is seated at the bottom of the universe (bhagavata purana 3.8.3),beneath the lower planetary systems.more connections to the v edic tradition can be found in the norse lore, but they go beyond the presenttopic.tibet tibetan buddhist perspective of the nagas comes from cho-yang's year of tibet edition. among allthe creatures of the six realms, humans are the most fortunate, and have the best opportunity for attain-ing the ultimate achievement. gods and demi-gods dwell in immeasurable happiness, exhausting thefruits of their positive karma, and are too distr

MICHAEL WYNN THE SOUL TRAVELERS

tedly associated with villains. story of the flood [1.3] even more frequent than the themes of serpentine gods is the theme of a global flood. the number of stories regarding a worldwide flood is incredible, and the similarities between the various tales of inundation are even more alarming. most people who are even remotely familiar with atlantis will know that it was consumed by a flood. in the norse tradition of sweden and norway, a flood with poured forth from the bleeding god ymir consumed the whole of humanity, save a man named bergelmir and his wife who survived the flood using a hollowed-out tree trunk as a vessel. in the sumerian/babylonian accounts (2500bc, allegedly, a man named utnapishtim is warned by the god ea that another god enlil intends to flood the earth. utnapishtim th

PHILIP NEIL MYTHS LEGENDS EXPLAINED

st man and woman and the cosmic serpent. the fon call this serpent aido-hwedo, and he carried the creator in his mouth when the world was made. aido-hwedo is said to have accompanied the first man and woman to earth. introduction 7 our notion of time, the limited time of creation, is merely a trick of ahura mazda s to limit the power of ahriman. at the end of time, all will be purified, and as in norse mythology a fresh, new creation will arise. the flood just as many mythologies look forward to the destruction of this world in a catastrophe, such as the norse cataclysm called ragnarok, so many record a time, within this creation, when the gods grew angry with humankind, and attempted to destroy them with a flood. the biblical story of the deluge is one of many such accounts, and owes much

of chance, play, and humor into humanity s relationship with the gods. obatala, the creator, is hymned by the yoruba as the father of laughter, who rests in the sky like a swarm of bees. the mandans believe that first creator actually turned into the trickster god coyote. such tricksters, whose mischief may lead them into wickedness, are found throughout mythology, from the greek dionysus to the norse loki to the japanese susano (see pp. 58, 69, and 123. but another theme is the creator s care for the beings he has made. it is this care that leads vishnu, the hindu preserver of the world, to take on his many avatar forms in order to help humanity in times of crisis. his final avatar, kalkin, the white horse, will appear at the end of this era, to usher in a new age. the great mother creat

on the capitoline hill in rome, where romulus saw the 12 vultures and began to make the city boundaries. it shows romulus and remus being suckled by the she-wolf. wolves were said to have connections with the god of war, so it is possible he sent her purposefully to rescue his children. the wolf dates from the fifth century bce but the children are later additions. she-wolf romulus and remus the norse gods 68 the norse gods o din the chief god, or all-father of the norse gods and his brothers, vili and ve, created the world from the body of the first living creature, the frost giant ymir, whom they killed. ymir had come into being when the fiery sparks of the hot, southern land of muspell had met with the melting ice of niflheim, the cold land in the north. when odin and his brothers kill

he body of the first living creature, the frost giant ymir, whom they killed. ymir had come into being when the fiery sparks of the hot, southern land of muspell had met with the melting ice of niflheim, the cold land in the north. when odin and his brothers killed him, ymir s blood drowned all the frost giants except bergelmir and his wife, who later bore a race of giants, forever opposed to the norse gods (see opposite. once he was dead, the brothers used ymir s bones to make mountains, his skull to make the dome of the sky, and his blood became the seas. then they set the stars, the sun, and the moon in the sky. one day, when walking along the beach, they found two tree trunks an ash and an elm. from these, they made the first man and woman, ask and embla. odin breathed the spirit of li

f their armor to fight with supernatural strength. certainly the beserks were likely to die in battle, and so win a place in valhalla, where they split their time between fighting and drinking. valhalla was envisaged as a vast golden hall, with a roof of shields, a frame of spears, and 540 doors, through each of which 800 warriors would be able to march abreast at the last battle of ragnarok. the norse gods 69 freyr, god of fertility freyr, a god of fertility, was originally one of the vanir, who became subsumed in odin s more warlike aesir. freyr and his sister freya were the children of njord, the god of the sea. ask, the first ma n ask and his wife embla were the first man and woman. they were created by odin from logs on the seashore and are said to be the ancestors of all mankind. ear

12th century. it shows the aesir gods odin and thor, and freyr, who was one of the vanir. it used to hang in a church in halsingland. early germanic peoples worshiped odin as wotan or woden, the origin of the word wednesday. his wife frigg, is the origin of friday, thor gives us the word for thursday and tiw or tiwaz, another germanic battle god, is the source for tuesday. tiw survives as tyr in norse mythology, but most of his functions seem to have been transferred to odin. hammer rav en friends of odin odin is often depicted with his two ravens, huginn and muninn (thought and memory) perched on his shoulders. he sent them flying abroad each day from his chair in asgard, from which he could survey all of the worlds. loki and the giant after the war between the aesir and the vanir, asgar

hat he began to swell and revealed himself to be a rock giant, a race who hated the gods. thor killed him with one hammer blow. months later, loki returned leading a strange foal loki s child by svaldifari. this was sleipnir, odin s eight-legged steed, who could outrun anything, and bear its rider right down to hel, the land of the dead. the world tree myth 70 the world tree myth according to the norse poem the lay of grimnir, of all trees, yggdrasil is the best. yggdrasil is a huge ash tree that stands at the center of the cosmos, protecting and nourishing the worlds. the gods are described as riding out each day from yggdrasil to deal out fates to mankind, and it was on yggdrasil that the supreme god odin willingly sacrificed himself, hanging in torment for nine long nights before he cou

hole world, and reach up to heaven. eagle a giant eagle sits at the top of yggdrasil, with a hawk perched between its eyes. the flapping of the eagle s wings causes winds in the worlds below. tree of sacrifice yggdrasil literally means terrible horse or odin s horse, as odin, when he was sacrificed on the tree to gain knowledge of the magic runes, is described as riding it, in the same sense that norse poets refer to a gallows tree as a horse. the world tree this manuscript shows yggdrasil, the world or cosmic tree, which supports the nine norse worlds. stags and goats nibble at its twigs, its trunk rots, and the dragon nidhogg gnaws its roots, causing it great suffering. but the tree is saved from decay by the three norns fate, being, and necessity who sprinkle the tree each day with wate

o a rock with the entrails of one of his sons, and a snake drops poison in his face, which his wife catches in a cup. when splashed, his writhings made the entire earth shake. he does not escape until ragnarok (see above. this 12th-century stone shows loki bound to a rock for killing balder. sigurd the dragon-slayer 72 sigurd the dragon-slayer sigurd, son of the hero sigmund and a favorite of the norse god odin, grew up an orphan. a valiant youth, he slew the dragon fafnir at the behest of regin the smith and took his treasure (see below. but the treasure hoard was tainted by a ring that had been cursed (see box) and disaster followed. sigurd soon married gudrun, daughter of gjuki, king of the niflungs and agreed to help her brother gunnar to win brynhild, a valkyrie who lived behind a wal

on before he died, fafnir warned sigurd to leave the treasure alone, for it would bring only misery. but sigurd took it so that he could win gudrun, daughter of gjuki, king of the niflungs, as his bride. sigurd sigurd is the greatest of the germanic heroes, hero of the volsunga saga, the nibelungenlied, and of many eddaic poems such as reginsmal and fafnismal. the story of sigurd was developed in norse sagas and poems and also in germanic literature, culminating in the highly sophisticated saga of love and revenge, the nibelungenlied, in which sigurd is called siegfried, and the story of the dragon-slaying is unimportant. today most people know it as the basis of wagner s opera cycle the ring (see p. 79. church doorw ay this doorway was carved in about 1200 and comes from a church at hyles

batala who, with the other orisha, or benevolent gods, created dry land and human beings. the orisha, such as shango, god of thunder (see below, ogun, god of iron and war, and ifa, god of divination, are opposed by the ajogun or malevolent gods, such as iku (death) and arun (disease. in the endless cosmic struggle between good and evil, one of eshu s key roles is to trick the ajogun. but like the norse god loki (see pp. 69, eshu is related to the ajogun as well as the orisha, forming a link between them; and like loki, he has sometimes been wrongly identified with the christian devil. the wrath of the tester of humanity ajogun can be turned aside by sacrificing to eshu, and his role might be best expressed as god of fate. eshu tests human beings to discover their true nature. if they resis

ROBERT KIRK WALKER BETWEEN WORLDS

amics of traditional themes elsewhere (see bibliography, so in this book have limited the commentary solely to those parts of kirk's text which seem, either subtly, or quite openly, to assert a perennial wisdom-tradition. it is not too obscure a task to detect the presence of such material; we have many fragmentary records of it from the ancient world, from early christian writers, from classical norse, celtic and other european myths and legends and from archaeological evidence. we also have a wide range of texts from the renaissance period onwards, in which such perennial metaphysical and magical themes and systems are restated in various ways although kirk's book is always declared to be a text or collection of folklore, it often reads like a book on alchemy renaissance theosophy, or es

h men to the grave. the fairies are frequently associated with death and events surrounding death, though kirk takes pains to separate the fairies, with their own orders and tribes and polity (page 28) and the spirits or departed souls of dead humans. the use of the phrase middle-earth is worth noting, both in its use by kirk and its preservations in scottish-english dialect and early english. in norse and scandinavian mythology15 the term is used for the middle world, that of humans. the concept is rooted in a primal magical cosmology of three worlds: over-world, middle- world and under-world. humans dwell in the middle-world, certain gods and goddesses, angels, and divine messengers or spirits in the over-world, while other deities, fairies and ancestral spirits dwell in the under-world

found in irish sagas, in the welsh mabinogion and in the vita merlini. we may see them also in the myths of orpheus http//www.dreampower.com/kirk_wbw/pg_82.htm (6 of 10 [10/9/2001 12:36:03 am] robert kirk- walker between worlds(pages 82-91 (similar in many ways to that of the youthful or mad merlin or to the search for mabon in khllwch and olwen in the mabinogion, or the tragic myth of balder in norse legend. in these tales, the interaction of all life is shown through orders of animals and other entities, all of which depend upon a central figure, usually a divine son or child of light. the cyclical nature of these myths is frequently connected to the seasons of the year, and there are firm analogies or reflections of the cycles of birth, life, death, and rebirth of the mortal world, but

RUBY TABLET OF SET

pecific essence of an ideal. this is certainly an area that needs deeper investigation. the workshop session discussion however left the topic of abstract forms, and instead investigated the historic use of symbols in various cultures. looking first at the more complex god forms, it seems each major culture has a "trickster" god: coyote fills this niche in several amerindian cultures, loki in the norse mythos, and thoth (hermes and mercury) in the egyptian (greek and roman) mythologies. the trickster is that spirit who makes you think. he is the spirit who is unpredictable in his actions or reactions, who gets himself and everyone else into trouble. in the process of doing so. most often after everyone is already in trouble. he makes people think, and in the end he generally gets everyone

based on the worship of male-female polarity, the observance of the agricultural seasons, and magick. worship of the male-female aspects of nature usually is expressed as allegiance to the horned god and the great mother goddess. ritual follows the movement of the sun and moon. neo-pagans see themselves as reviving the pre-christian religion of europe and the mediterranean basin, and manifest as norse, druid, or egyptian in format. by far the wiccans compose the largest segment of the neo-pagan community. wicca or witchcraft is derived from the ancient paganism practiced in western europe, especially the british isles. magick, an essential element in modern wicca, seeks mastery of all the cosmic forces believed to control the world. witches believe in the ancient principal of "as above, s

might also note that the name of the hebrew demon leviathan (lvythn) surrounding the space between the two circles is significant. it is a five-lettered name, and so refers to the inner ring. the ophite (serpentine) gnostics knew well this symbolism behind leviathan- whom they identified with the greek ouroboros the world-serpent which bites its own tail surrounding the inner cosmos (see also the norse midhgardhsormr= midgard's worm] or jormungandr= great magical staff) leviathan separates the temporal cosmos of the earth and the spheres of the seven planets from the realm of the fixed stars and the realms of being beyond. the serpent guards the passage between the realms of change and flux and the realm of being (see kurt rudolph, gnosis [san francisco: harper and row 1987, pp. 67-70) lev

wolf- the daemon which taught certain dinee the powers of skinwalking. he is the generator (father/mother) of the skinwalkers. thus it is the daemon trickster whom a skinwalker honors by wearing the wolf pelt draped upon his shoulders. it is always difficult to be accurate when crossing cultural lines to find comparisons. this case is no different. i have been asked if trickster correlates to the norse loki. this may very well be. i am far from expert in the norse religion/cosmogony. however, if i may be permitted an indulgence, i feel more of a connection between trickster and fenrir (fenris. this connection goes deeper than the outward appearance of a wolf. fenrir is feared because of his power and the premonition that he will destroy the established hierarchy at ragnarok. if death itsel

d to all of us now and again for varying periods of time in ritual settings, but it generally does not last, and it in fact should not be permitted to overshadow the awareness of other equally important matters [in other words, you don't want to get so caught up in ritual that you discover a candle has fallen only when the altar is ablaze. a somewhat similar thing was the state of mind of the old norse berserker: the frenzy of these warriors, whether chemically or self-induced, was of such depth as to not allow the infliction of wounds to register on the mind. the berserker had one thought in mind: fight and kill] if lycanthropy is chosen as a magical working format, the less civilized parts of the being are allowed a greater play. like the ferocity of angered dragons and enraged lions, th

SABBATIC KABALA OF THE CROOKED PATH

sive component in the communion. the priest become the vessel and the container of the powers drawn upon, mainly through the mystery of the sexual eucharist. it also reflects its double -natured house of power (or sah) in the tetragrammic vessel- the hand being the extension of the phallus and the eye being the cranial abode of the higher mouth (i.e. vulva- note due to this that the lone witch in norse lore was called volva and was considered a seer or a sybill, the oracle made manifest in the flesh of the crone, which suggest the oracular nature within this aat, reflected through the use of the portals of the moon. cell 6 being the aat of the 7th and 18th letter of the sacred alphabet this cell is a discourse upon the double will and the divided twins as found in the mystery of the androg

SATANGEL

den dawn, thelema, and (according to some) in the rites and observances of freemasonry, as it may be seen in what might be patronisingly called folk magic across europe. this same syncretism is evident in the classical grimoire in the rites, signs, seals; even in the names of the angels and devils themselves. here we find numerous survivals of assyrian, babylonian, hebrew, greek, roman, egyptian, norse and celtic gods, yet given new existence and identities as the denizens of pandemonium. that these arts have their roots in pre-christian magick is a fact alluded to again and again as this work progresses, for it cannot be overstressed. in the words of arthur e. waite, it is croquetemaine explained by diabolus, the runes of elf-land read with the interpretation of infernus (the book of cere

ation. destroys and burns the enemies of the summoner. tells of the creation of the world, and how he and the fallen came to be. his name probably derives from the egyptian horus. hecate (greek. triple headed queen of sorcery, who dwells where the roads meet. known also as enodia, trioditus, and antaia, she who encounters you. identified in some witch traditions as the mother of lucifer. hel (old norse. the queen of the underworld, and the name of the realm itself. the daughter of loki and the giantess angrboda, sister of fenrir and the midgard serpent. even the gods must tread the way of hel. helel ben shachar (hebrew, morning star, shining one. the phrase as it appears in the original hebrew, isaiah 14:12. thus taken to be a name of lucifer. heramael (grimorium verum. a subordinate spiri

SCHLAGER NEIL WORLD RELIGIONS REFERENCE LIBRARY

icism to describe his own skepticism (doubt) regarding the existence of god. 1893 the paper what is hinduism? by swami vivekananda, presented at the world parliament of religions in chicago, exposes many westerners to hinduism for the first time. 1933 45 some six million european jews are killed during the holocaust. 1948 the jewish nation of israel is established in palestine. 1972 the neo-pagan norse religion of asatru is officially recognized as a religion by the government of iceland. 1974 a number of wiccans gather in minneapolis, minnesota, where they draft a statement containing the principles of wiccan belief. world religions: almanac xiii timeline of events 1978 2005 reign of poland s john paul ii as pope of the roman catholic church, the first non-italian pope since the sixteenth

first principle, an undefined and unlimited substance. arche: the beginning or ultimate principle; the stuff of all matter, or the building block of creation. arihant: an enlightened person. ark of the covenant: a cabinet in which the ten commandments were kept in the first temple of jerusalem. artha: prosperity and success in material affairs. asatru: a neo-pagan religion based on worship of the norse (scandanavian) gods. ascetic: a person who practices rigid self-denial, giving up all comforts and pleasures, as an act of religious devotion. jain monks and nuns are ascetics. asha: righteousness that derives from natural law. ashkenazic: term used to refer to jews of france, germany, and eastern europe. astrology: the study of the movement of the planets and stars in relation to one anothe

nous (native) religions of the the venus of willendorf statue was discovered in 1908, but was created between c. 28,000 25,000 bce, most likely as a representation of an early fertility goddess. archivo iconografico, s.a./corbis. 8 world religions: almanac what is religion? americas, africa, and oceania are added to these, as well as more recent forms, such as neo-paganism, which worships ancient norse, celtic, egyptian, and other pagan (pre-christian) gods. god has many names as different religions developed over time and geographic regions, they all established one or more gods that the faithful could call upon and worship. the names of these gods differed across religions, although many shared similar characteristics. this is true in the monotheistic faiths that consider abraham as a fo

came to regard any non-christian religion, including the religions of asia, such as buddhism, shinto, and hinduism, as pagan. in the modern era pagan continues to be used as a negative and insulting term, implying something backward and vaguely evil. pagans are sometimes thought of as satanists, members of secretive cults who take words to know asatru: a neo-pagan religion based on worship of the norse (scandanavian) gods. beltane (beltaine: neo-pagan holiday on may 1 to celebrate spring flowerings and births. celtic: a term referring to an ethnic group that spread throughout europe, particularly the british isles, and is the source of many modern neo-pagan movements. coven: a group of neo-pagans, such as wiccans. alternately referred to as circles, groves, kindreds, garths, hearths, and o

from ancient, pre-christian religions. wicca, for example, was reconstructed from the beliefs of the ancient celts (pronounced kelts, an ethnic group found world religions: almanac 373 neo-paganism in western europe and the british isles. celts worshipped the goddess of fertility and the god of the hunt. other neo-pagans identify themselves specifically as followers of asatru, a god from ancient norse (scandinavian) mythology, or as druids, another religion based on ancient celtic practices( mythology is the collected stories of a culture or religion dealing with the origins, heroes, gods, and beliefs of a group of people) while many neo-pagan religions have their roots in celtic traditions, others have their origins in the gods and goddesses of the roman empire (c. 31 bce 476 ce. sometim

gest that there may be more than one million neopagans around the world today, with the majority in europe and north america. name of god. the divinities of neopaganism are called by a variety of names. prominent among them are the goddess (worshipped in many different aspects) and the god (also worshipped in many different aspects. other neopagan groups worship the pantheon, or group, of ancient norse mythology or the forces of nature. symbols. the goddess s symbols include the moon and many other objects representing the feminine: the cup, flowers, mirrors, seashells, and jewels. the god s symbols include the hunt, the sun, the sword, horns, the spear, the knife, the magic wand, the arrow, the sickle (a curved blade, and precious metals. worship. in general, forms of worship are left to

lude the hunt, the sun, the sword, horns, the spear, the knife, the magic wand, the arrow, the sickle (a curved blade, and precious metals. worship. in general, forms of worship are left to the individual believer or practitioner. dress. neo-pagans have no standard costume or form of dress, although some dress in robes and others worship naked. texts. asatruars honor the sagas that relate ancient norse myths, but neo-pagans as a whole have no defined texts or scriptures. sites. neo-pagans have no particular sites sacred to their religion. alternatively, because many celebrate the divine in nature, all sites may be considered holy. observances. in general, neo-pagans observe four festivals taken from celtic tradition that mark the seasons of the year: samhain, imbolc, beltaine, and lughnasa

rring simply to an open field and to the low vegetation that covers it) they see themselves as part of a tradition separate from neo-paganism, or, in their words, not a branch of the tree but a separate tree. unlike such religions as wicca, asatru is based on a surviving historical record. the religion s followers try to follow the beliefs contained in that record as much as possible. asatru is a norse religion, meaning that it is of scandinavian origin (scandinavia is a region that includes modern denmark, finland, iceland, norway, and sweden) in the modern era the religion goes by a wide number of names: forn sior, meaning ancient way or tradition; forn sed, or old custom; hedensk sed, or pagan custom; and nordisk sed, or nordic custom. other names that appear in writings about the relig

on, meaning that it is of scandinavian origin (scandinavia is a region that includes modern denmark, finland, iceland, norway, and sweden) in the modern era the religion goes by a wide number of names: forn sior, meaning ancient way or tradition; forn sed, or old custom; hedensk sed, or pagan custom; and nordisk sed, or nordic custom. other names that appear in writings about the religion include norse heathenism, germanic heathenism, the elder troth, the old way, vor sior( our way, odinism, and folkish asatru. little is known about the origins of asatru. the scandinavian religion on which it is based was practiced in northern europe during the first millennium (a period consisting of one thousand years) of the common era, meaning the years from 1 through 1000 ce, until the countries in th

hile those who have lived well are sent to a place of peace called hel (which, oddly, is the word from which the word hell is derived. asatru rituals are conducted by priests (gothi) or priestesses (gythia. they can be conducted in permanent or temporary sites, as long as the space is consecrated, or blessed. there is no canon, or official group, of texts, although many asatruars read the ancient norse sagas for their stories about the gods and goddesses (sagas are lengthy poems about heroic and legendary figures in scandinavia) holidays include celebration of the vernal equinox and the summer solstice; the charming of the plow in february; fogmoon, a celebration of the dead in november; and the blot ritual, a sacrificial offering to the gods that consists of such items as fruit or grains

fies that certainty. he does not say that he does not believe in god or religion. his point always was that the existence of god cannot be proved rationally. huxley refers to a metaphysical nifelheim when he talks about the realm of spiritual matters where, over history, one doctrine slays, or replaces, another. nifelheim, often spelled niflheim, refers to the outer region of cold and darkness in norse mythology. it is the abode of hel, the goddess of the dead. his allusion suggests that the realm of religion is a mysterious, frightening realm where belief systems come and go. excerpt from collected essays, vol. 5: science and chr i st ian tradit ion agnosticism and christianity the present discussion has arisen out of the use, which has become general in the last few years, of the terms a

t as emissaries of satan. it necessarily follows that, for him, the attainment of faith, not the ascertainment of truth, is the highest aim of mental life. and, on careful analysis of the nature of this faith, it will too often be found to be, not the mystic process of unity with the divine, nebulous: vague. theism: belief in the existence of a god. nifelheim, or niflheim: the home of the dead in norse mythology. innumerable: countless. mystifications: confusions. tell: become apparent. inevitable: unavoidable. theology: the study of religion and religious truth. ecclesiasticism: excessive devotion to church practices. idiosyncrasy: a quirk, a way of thinking or behaving that is particular to a person. impartial: neutral, not having an opinion for or against something. arrest: holding off

SYMBOLISM

pecific essence of an ideal. this is certainly an area that needs deeper investigation. the workshop session discussion however left the topic of abstract forms, and instead investigated the historic use of symbols in various cultures. looking first at the more complex god forms, it seems each major culture has a "trickster" god: coyote fills this niche in several amerindian cultures, loki in the norse mythos, and thoth (hermes and mercury) in the egyptian (greek and roman) mythologies. the trickster is that spirit who makes you think. he is the spirit who is unpredictable in his actions or reactions, who gets himself and everyone else into trouble. in the process of doing so- most often after everyone is already in trouble- he makes people think, and in the end he generally gets everyone

TECHNICIANS GUIDE TO THE LEFT HAND PATH

t unique ways of expressing the same principles, dreams and ideas. understand then, that within the lhp this is a perfectly acceptable state of affairs. this is because an emphasis is placed upon the actual principles themselves- not the particular way and form in which they are expressed. if you understand a principle you will recognize its essential idea. whether cloaked in the mythology of the norse gods, the platitudes of a pythagoras, or the enneads of plotinus- it is the essential extension of the idea into human consciousness that stands. the gloss it is covered within is a question of time, psychological disposition, genetics, culture, religious indoctrination and heritage. understanding is an art as much as it is a process. as long as culture, its myths, history can be understood

THAGIRION

gician. tiphereth corresponds with the sun in the form of light, while thagirion represents the black sun. the black sun represents the sun in its inner form where it shines inside man and reveals the hidden qliphotic worlds. the ordinary sun is the outer sun that shines on the ordinary world. the black sun is the god set in the typhonian alchemy, while the ordinary sun is sets twin horus. in old norse mythology balder corresponds with the ordinary sun and his blind brother h der or loke with the black sun. h der is similar with odin and also odin corresponds with the black sun. thagirion is the sun of the shadow side, which can be interpretated as the sun in the underworld balder in hel, ra in amenti etc. the sun is the symbol of the unity of the whole self that can be aware of itself onl

orbs all normal light.this black sun can be connected with the highest qliphotic principal thaumiel, rather than with thagirion. the black sun is generating the power called vril, od or the world kundalini or the dragon power. it can be described as the principal that is manifestating the powers of chaos. in the bible and in other mythological descriptions this principal acts as the beast. in old norse mythology it is the fenriz wolf, in the goetic qabalah it is the phallic belfegor. in the book of revelation 13:2 is is written: the dragon gave the beast its throne and authority. we can later read that the number of the beast is a human number. this can be understood as the dragon (chaos) is manifested through thagirion by a man, or by mankind. the fact that the number of the beast is a hu

THE GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE UNUSUAL UNEXPLAINED VOL 1

ophesied period of time which precedes the return of jesus christ to earth, in which there will be tremendous suffering that will test humanity s endurance, patience, or faith. ufo literally an unidentified flying object, although the term is often used by some to refer to an alien spacecraft. ufologist someone who investigates the reports and sightings of unidentified flying objects. valhalla in norse mythology, when the souls of heroes are killed in battle, they spend eternity in a great hall, which is called valhalla. from the old norse valhall, literally meaning hall of the slain. valkyrie one of the 12 handmaids of odin in norse mythology who ride their horses over the battlefield as they escort the souls of slain heroes to valhalla. from the old norse valkyrja, meaning literally choo

THE GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE UNUSUAL UNEXPLAINED VOL 3

ll of bear-people, wolf-people, fox-people, and so forth, and state that in the beginning of things, humans were as animals and animals as humans. stories of women who gave birth to werecreatures are common among the north american tribal myths. early cultures throughout the americas, europe, asia, and africa formed totem clans and often worshipped minor deities that were half-human, half-animal. norse legends tell about hairy, humanlike beings that live in the underworld caves and come out at night to feast on the flesh of unfortunate surface dwellers. to the people of the middle ages, there was little question that such creatures as werewolves truly existed, and the inquisition was certain to include these demonic entities in their arrests. switzerland can lay claim to the first official

animals, hoping that the ferocity and t h e g a l e e n c y c l o p e d i a o f t h e u n u s u a l a n d u n e x p l a i n e d 84 mysterious creatures a werewolf from the 1980 film the howling (the kobal collection) strength of the beasts would magically rub off on them. most often, in the northern european tribes, the fierce animal of choice was the wolf or the bear. in ancient scandinavia, the norse words ulfhedhnar( wolf-clothed) and berwerker refer to the wolf or bear skins worn by the fierce viking warriors when they went berserk, war-mad, and fought with the fury of vicious animals against opponents. in the slavonic languages, the werewolf is called vlukodlak, which translates to wolf-haired or wolfskinned, once again suggesting the magical transference desired from wearing the skin

ore. new york: larousse, 1995. spence, lewis. the fairy tradition in britain. london: rider, 1948. trolls trolls bear no resemblance to the cute little dolls with big bug-eyes, dolphin grins, and bushy red hair. rather, trolls are nasty monsters who can assume gigantic proportions and wreak havoc wherever they choose. they are fiendish giants, often associated with dark-side sorcerers. to the old norse, the term troll was applied only to hostile giants. by the time of the high middle ages, trolls had become a bit smaller and more fiendish, but they had also become capable of working black magic and sorcery. regardless of their size, trolls are unrelenting enemies of humankind. those occasional scandinavian folk heroes who dared to engage them in mortal combat were able to defeat the trolls

eing sacred, therefore forbidden, such as in polynesian societies. from the tongan tabu, said to have been introduced into the english language by captain james cook in the late eighteenth century. talisman an object such as a gemstone or stone, believed to have magical powers or properties. from the greek telesma, meaning something consecrated, telein, to complete, and telos, result. valhalla in norse mythology, when the souls of heroes are killed in battle, they spend eternity in a great hall, which is called valhalla. from the old norse valhall, literally meaning hall of the slain. valkyrie one of the 12 handmaids of odin in norse mythology who ride their horses over the battlefield as they escort the souls of slain heroes to valhalla. from the old t h e g a l e e n c y c l o p e d i a

ed valhalla. from the old norse valhall, literally meaning hall of the slain. valkyrie one of the 12 handmaids of odin in norse mythology who ride their horses over the battlefield as they escort the souls of slain heroes to valhalla. from the old t h e g a l e e n c y c l o p e d i a o f t h e u n u s u a l a n d u n e x p l a i n e d 238 superstitions, strange customs, taboos, and urban legends norse valkyrja, meaning literally chooser of the slain. zoroaster a persian prophet (c. 628 b.c.e. c. 551 b.c.e) and the founder of an ancient religion called zoroastrianism whose principal belief is in a supreme deity and of the existence of a dualism between good and evil. derived from the greek word zarat or zarathustra, meaning camel handler. t h e g a l e e n c y c l o p e d i a o f t h e u n

ophesied period of time which precedes the return of jesus christ to earth, in which there will be tremendous suffering that will test humanity s endurance, patience, or faith. ufo literally an unidentified flying object, although the term is often used by some to refer to an alien spacecraft. ufologist someone who investigates the reports and sightings of unidentified flying objects. valhalla in norse mythology, when the souls of heroes are killed in battle, they spend eternity in a great hall, which is called valhalla. from the old norse valhall, literally meaning hall of the slain. valkyrie one of the 12 handmaids of odin in norse mythology who ride their horses over the battlefield as they escort the souls of slain heroes to valhalla. from the old norse valkyrja, meaning literally choo

THE GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE UNUSUAL UNEXPLAINED VOL

an alphabet. certain traditions attribute the runes to the volsungr, an ancestral tribe of heroic and semidivine beings that settled in northern europe just prior to the ice age. according to some of the legends of the volsungr, the godlike beings gave the magical symbols as a gift that might assist lesser humans in their struggles to survive in the harsh environment of ice age europe. in the old norse religion, it was odin, the father of the gods, who, seeking higher wisdom, hung upside down from the world tree for nine days before he received the rune symbols as the answer to his quest. when the runic symbols were placed on small rocks or blocks of wood, the old norse cast them to predict the success of a hunting or fishing expedition, when to plant crops, or what course their children m

phesied period of time which precedes the return of jesus christ to earth, in which there will be tremendous suffering that will test humanity fs endurance, patience, or faith. ufo literally an unidentified flying object, although the term is often used by some to refer to an alien spacecraft. ufologist someone who investigates the reports and sightings of unidentified flying objects. valhalla in norse mythology, when the souls of heroes are killed in battle, they spend eternity in a great hall, which is called valhalla. from the old norse valhall, literally meaning hall of the slain. valkyrie one of the 12 handmaids of odin in norse mythology who ride their horses over the battlefield as they escort the souls of slain heroes to valhalla. from the old norse valkyrja, meaning literally choo

THE GOLDEN ESSENCE

, and all things, were not exempt from the cosmic drama, from the fate of cyclical existence, for humans and all things else were not separate from the cosmos or the world, but part of it, sharing in its fate. all indo-europeans, and many non-indo europeans, believed in the great life, death, and renewal of the cosmos; the hindus certainly come to mind, with the kalpa and regeneration system; the norse ragnarok mythology shows the world being destroyed by fire and ice, the very primal elements from which they believed the world was created from, before the new, perfected world was born; the zoroastrians believed that the forces of light and darkness would destroy each other and the whole world in a cataclysmic battle at the end of time, cleansing the world for a re-emergence and regenerati

THE MIDDLE PILLAR

ons, inspirations, latent psychic functions, and spiritual energies. it is here that the higher self expresses itself in various forms through archetypes. the ordinary person is usually unaware of these forces and archetypes until they are brought to light during the process of self-realization. archetypes of the superconscious include the first gods of a pantheon, such as the greek titans or the norse giants. 6. the middle unconscious is an inner region similar and accessible to that of the waking consciousness. this contains all t h g s in our field of awareness that we are not normally aware of, but that we can become aware of. it is an unconscious matrix that underlies the conscious mind where the mental activities are "incubated before their birth into consciousness. archetypes of the

these lines. the following list shows how the various gods and goddesses of several pantheons can be attributed to the tree. bear in mind, however, that finding correspondences between one culture's spiritual system and another is an inexact science at best. the associations given here are only one of several that are possible. a list of deity correspondences sephirah egypfian greek roman celtic norse hindu kether chokmah binah chesed geburah tiphareth netzach hod yesod malkuth nudjer ptah thoth isis- amoun horus- osiris ra hathor- anubis khnum shu khonsu geb aither- uranus rhea hera zeus ares- apollo- aphrodite- hermes- artemis- demeter aether- coelus juno- jupiter mars- sol- venus- mercury- diana- ceres dagda- lugh danu- llyr morrigan- angus mac og brigit- ogma- cerridwen- cemunnos ymir

THE STAR IN THE WEST BY CAPTAIN FULLER A CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE WORKS OF ALEISTER CROWLEY

ia, the purdah of the mussulman, the veil of the vestal, the numerous accounts of virgin-mothers, all find their origin in this idea. the laws of the vedas, of manu, of buddha, the codes of confucius and lao-tze, the talmudic books of the jews, and the koran of the mohamedans, all maintain its direct influence and restrictions; and in the west in the old mythologies of teuton and celt, in the old norse sagas, more so in the roman and grecian law, and still more so on the christian edicts of constantine, theodoric, athalaric, and justinian, and the innumerable codes of the middle ages: all of which growing one into the other have produced that truly revolting state of affairs belting the world with lust. as every one of us has been bred on dead flesh, so every one of us passes along our way

THE ABYSS AND TABAET

t the adversary has existed long before christianity. the avestan texts as well as the denkard provide a wealth of knowledge of ahriman from a right hand path point of view, consider as such a veil which can only be passed through by the great work of initiation. the names and cultural expressions of the adversary are briefly explored as an introduction, from the ancient persian, hebraic and even norse, the adversary appears in each. as tempter, war maker, wisdom bringer and devouring predatory spirit. look to the common aspects which make the opposer as a force of initiation. lucifer/ahriman/samael is a spirit which is made viable through the adept his/herself, this force is expressive of the individual, thus each manifestation unique as the initiate in question. the primal abyss she fill

TWO ESSAYS ON THE WORSHIP OF PRIAPUS

housesteads. although the worship of which we are treating prevailed so extensively among the romans and throughout the roman provinces, it was far from being peculiar to them, for the same superstition formed part of the religion of the teutonic race, and was carried with that race wherever it settled. the teutonic god, who answered to the roman priapus, was called, in anglo-saxon, fr a, in old norse, freyr, and, in old german, fro. among the swedes, the principal seat of his worship was at upsala, and adam of bremen, who lived in the eleventh century, when paganism still retained its hold on the north, in describing the forms under which the gods were there represented, tells us that the third of the gods at upsala was fricco [another form of the name, who bestowed on mortals peace and

TYSON DONALD NEW MILLENNIUM MAGIC

them an equal amount in the opposite direction lest the temerity of the magus be punished. whenever something is gained that is not his or hers by right, the magus must lose something equally precious. t he spiral is perhaps the most common of primitive symbols. it finds expression in the art of such diverse cultures as the native american, the pre-buddhist tibetan, the african tribal, and pagan norse. usually it is assumed to represent the emanating power of the sun. this is true in a limited sense, but it should be understood that the sun is only a material expression of manifesting energy and that the spiral refers the mind back to the original princi- ple, even as does the physical sun. both spiral and sun are symbols of the underly- ing reality. sometimes the spiral is drawn with a w

up of two sowelu (sigel) runes overlapped and joined at the top and bottom. runes were the magical alphabet of the teutonic peoples before the coming of christianity. the sowelu- which means "sun"-was the rune used by the nazi ss as their emblem: 11 4. the sowelu is in the form of a lightning stroke and is a powerful symbol of creative force. it could be written right to left( 1\1) as in the old norse alphabet, or left to right( m) as in the old english. if the two sides of the unicursal hexagram are separated, they will reveal themselves to be a sowelu rune and its mirror reflection: with this in mind the unicursal hexagram becomes understandable as a syrn- bol of descending and reascending force--or in pictorial terms, the down strike of the lightning bolt and its reflection from the mi

us long enough to teach him or her the secrets of the art, the magus must suffer the considerable pain and doubt that comes from completely renouncing the com- mon western material mode of thinking and living. these hard-won personal keys of magic will belong to the magus alone and will have great power, but they will be wasted if the magus tries to share them with the larger world. in legend the norse god of magic, odin (the teutonic god woden) is said to have undergone this kind of personal sacrifice to achieve his spiritual illumination. in a beautiful and powerful excerpt from the havamal, an unknown bard takes on the voice of the god in order to sing of his trial and achievement: i trow that i hung on the windy tree, swing there nights all nine, gashed with a blade, bloodied for odin

t of spirit through his or her personal seeking will act as the basis for further meditations, and while only a few signs will be given at the start, the acquiring of the elements of the art will have a snowball effect. these signs from the spirit are not abstractions but are con- crete tools by the use of which the magus can sculpt his or her personal universe. words are powers. in this view the norse shamans were very close to the hebrew kabbalists, who also perceived that words truly spoken have a vitality all their own. odin is said to have given his knowledge of runes to his people, but of course he could not have done so. even had he been an historical personage, he could only have given a translation of the runes he snatched from his subconscious, which would have been a pale shadow

not always so easy to determine beforehand. it is hard to predict exactly how a greek god will act in a given situation. however, they are generally more sympathetic to human needs because they share them, in part. for more material purposes it might be better to use a greek god rather than an egyptian. you will get a more flexible response. the gods of the teutonic peoples (the saxons, germans, norse) are dangerous. there is no more polite way to phrase it. by modern standards many would be classed as demons. they represent the crudest of elemental forces and are very dif- ficult to control once invoked. they have a disturbing tendency to lose their reason and commit general mayhem. a person possessed by loki, donar or woden could easily become berserk and go on a killing rampage if the

ity during the sleeping dream-state continues throughout the entire lives of the greater mass of humanity. most men and women remain mere pawns in their psychic worlds until the day they die. they neither write the script for their dream plays nor take an active part in their direction. it need not be so. the dreamer has the power to rule his or her dreams and visions. like the awakened kraken of norse mythology, he or she can rise into awareness and with a single word bring the entire dream world crashing down, because the dream is the dreamer's to make or destroy. just as the conscious aware- ness can learn to control the outward expression of the subconscious elements of the mind during waking, so also can it govern them during sleep. in waking life the subconscious often directs the ac

ssession, such as a piece of land or a house. what is done to it will then befall the thing it repre- sents. cast, it can induce the acquisition of an inheritance or the loss of property, depending on what other runes accompany it. to understand the relationships between the runes they must be written down in their traditional order in three groups of eight runes each, called aettir (from the old norse for "families' possibly derived from the germanic for "octaves. the rectangular enclosures display the various ways the runes may be grouped: a: one group of twenty-four an integrated whole that exhibits all the major forces in human life. here are the gods of justice and retribution, of war, of the family. here are the bliid forces of nature. and here are the many facets of human personalit

TYSON DONALD SOUL FLIGHT

e has other lesser familiar spirits who act as his assistants. although i use the male gender for convenience, there have been many female shamans in different cultures. it is not exclusively a male profession. female shamans also engage in soul flight, and sometimes wed the spirits who guide their progress and instruct them in their arts. a shamaness named thorbjorg is described in detail in the norse saga of eric the red. she was probably typical for her time and culture, although the appearance of the shamaness varied widely around the world. many of her garments and ornaments were not merely decorative but had a magical function. when she came in the evening, with the man who had been sent to meet her, she was clad in a dark-blue cloak, fastened with a strap, and set with stones quite

ibe but also to those classes of spirits who are related by ties of ancient blood to the tribe. in primitive cultures, it was often believed that humans and spirits could interbreed. the idea that a person might have a family connection with a particular spirit was not seen as absurd. the value in such beliefs is that it joined humans and spirits in bontds of mutual support- 2. anderson and buel, norse discovery of america, 36-7. 6 soul flight contrary to what might be assumed, this belief in the interbreeding of spirits with humans has not died out in modern western culture, but has merely taken on a new form that is acceptable to the prejudices of the modern world. this belief has existed continuously throughout history. we will encounter it again when we examine witchcraft, the fairy fa

, as we have seen, the presence chapter one: shamanic soul flight 7 of a tree with steps; another, smaller tree notched with nine tapty is kept in his yurt by the shaman. it is one more indication of his ability to journey ecstatically through the celestial regiom3 the tree represents the living axis of the world that has its roots in the underworld and its branches in the heavens. it is found in norse legends in the form of yggdrasill, the world ash, the roots of which run so deep not even the wise god of the shamans, odin, knows their endings. one of the many names of odin is yggr-he was named aft'er the shamanic tree. in the religion of voudoun, transplanted from africa to the new world by black slaves, it appears in the form of the central pillar (poteau-mitan) of the ritual space that

spiritual intelligence and its own astral world. the meaning of every rune expresses itself dynamically in these two ways-as a self-aware astral entity with whom it is possible to converse and interact, and as a landscape that contains and houses the entity, and reflects in its details the nature of the entity. the shamanic ordeal of woden the god most closely associated with runes is woden (the norse god odin, the one-eyed god of magic who became viewed as the father of the gods in the northern pantheon, on a similar footing with zeus in the greek pantheon. in his earlier germanic incarnation, he was a shaman who wrested the runes from the roots of yggdrasil, the world tree, during a soul flight that was induced by a trial of physical endurance. the nature of his trial, and its reward, a

WICCA WITCHCRAFT TODAY

utiful girls were regularly kidnapped as brides for the fairy king, and male fairies often persuaded girls to leave home, as the highlanders in scotland used to supply themselves with girls from the lowlands three hundred years ago by eloping with them or kidnapping them. the clan of macleods of the isles was founded by leod, son of olaf the black, king of man, who was son of harold hardraga, the norse king who was killed at the battle of stamford bridge, 1066. his great-grandson, the fourth chief, had a fairy wife, who gave him the celebrated fairy flag of dunvegan, about 1380. these are all historical people and the flag still exists. this fairy wife was obviously a woman of the small race, who was nevertheless large enough to have a number of children, whose descendants are alive now. t

r feet six inches high and some are as long as seventy feet. one can understand that defence needs made a small doorway desirable, also to keep out the cold, but it is unlikely that there was any special advantage in building a long passage where it would be necessary to walk in a bent position; it therefore seems that the average height of the users must have been under four and a half feet. the norse bishop of orkney, writing at kirkwall in 1443, says 'when harold haarfaga conquered the orkneys in the ninth century the inhabitants were of two nations, the papae (irish catholics) and the peti (picts or pehts, and he exterminated them both' he goes on to say 'these picts of orkney were only a little exceeding pygmies in stature and worked wonderfully in the construction of their cities eve

18276066 GRIMM JACOB TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL 1

se him as the most universal and the supreme one. wuotan so far as we have succeeded in gleaning from the relics of the old religion an idea of his being wuotan is the most intellectual god of our antiquity, he shines out above all the other gods; and tlierefore the latin writers, when they speak of the german cultus, are always prompted to make mention first of mercury. we know that not only the norsemen, but the saxons, thuringians, alamanns and langobards worshipped this deity; why should franks, goths, and the rest be excluded from his service? at the same time there are plain indications that his worship was not always and everywhere the dominant one. in the south of germany, although the personification of wish maintahied its ground, wuotan became extinct sooner than in the north; ne

ust emend the passage, and read' a piratis farrianis' by the customs of these mariners and vikings even of christian times, we may assure ourselves how holy the place was accounted in the heathen time (see suppl. in an island lying between denmark, friesland and saxony, we might expect to find a heathen god who was common to all three. it would be strange if the frisian fusite were unknown to the norsemen; and stranger still if the eddie forscti were a totally different god. it is true, one would have expected a mention of this deity in particular from saxo gram, who is quite silent about it; but then he omits many others, and in his day fosite's name may have died out amongst the frisians. there is some discrepancy between the two names, as was natural in the case of two nations: on. fors

an as. eastor and gotli. austr. in latin the identical austcr has been pushed round to the noonday quarter, the south. in the edda a male being, a spirit of light, bears the name of atistri, so a female one might have been called aiistra; the high german and saxon tribes seem on the contrary to have formed only an ostard, edstre (fem, not ostaro, eiistra (masc- and that may be the reason why the norsemen said paskir and not austrur: they had never worshipped a goddess austra, or her cultus was already extinct. ostara, eddre seems therefore to have been the divinity of the radiant dawn, of upspringing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessing^ whose meaning could be easily adapted to the resurrection- day of the christian's god. bonfires were lighted at easter, and according to a pop

DAVID ICKE THE BIGGEST SECRET

rossedthe english channel with william the conqueror for the battle of hastings in 1066 andbecame the scottish sinclairs. five of the nine st clairs who took part in the battle werewilliams first cousins and one of them settled in scotland to found the scottishdynasty.29 the family apparently named themselves st clair after a martyred hermitnamed clare, or thats the official line.30 they were the norsemen who came down fromscandinavia to occupy what they called normandy, but their true origin was with thewhite races and reptile-aryans which emerged from the near east and the caucasus.the foundations were laid for rosslyn chapel in 1446 and it was completed in the1480s. it is a mass of esoteric and later freemasonic symbolism and it is like a shrinefor the brotherhood. the sinclairs had ext

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCCULTISM AND PARAPSYCHOLOGY VOL 1

k of folklore (1913: as peoples became more civilised and thought more deeply of the mystery of death, they conceived of a place where the souls lived on, and being puzzled to account for the rainbow, came to the conclusion that it was a bridge by means of which spirits mounted to their abode above the clouds. the milky way was called variously the road of the gods or the road of souls. among the norsemen, after odin had constructed his heavenly palace, aided by the dwarfs, he reared the bridge bifrost, which men call the rainbow, by which it could be reached. it is of three colours; that in the middle is red, and is of fire, to consume any unworthy souls that would venture up the bridge. in connection with this idea of a bridge uniting heaven and earth, up which souls ascended, arose the

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OCCULTISM AND PARAPSYCHOLOGY VOL 2

desire to procure or those that prey on their catches. haddocks are white bellies, salmon red ones, and the dog-fish the big black fellow. it is also regarded as unlucky to name a minister, or refer to sunday, in a fishing boat.a fact that suggests that in early christian times fishermen might be pious churchmen on land but continued to practice paganism when they went to sea, like the icelandic norsemen who believed that christ ruled their island, and thor the ocean. fairies must not be named on fridays, at halloween, or on beltane (may day) when charm fires were lit. earth worship, or rather the propitiation of earth spirits, was a prominent feature of scottish paganism. there too magic played a leading role. compacts were confirmed by swearing over a piece of turf, certain moors or mou

FREEMASONRY AND CATHOLICISM BY MAX HEINDEL

ommon blood wherein the pictures of their ancestors lived. the sons saw the life of their fathers, and thus the fathers lived in the sons; and since the consciousness of adam and methuselah and the other patriarchs lived for centuries in their descendants, they were said to live personally. it was then as great a crime to marry outside the family as it now is to marry within. even among the early norsemen, we learn that if anyone wanted to marry within a strange family, he was first obliged to mix blood; it must first be tested to see whether his blood would mix with that of the family into which he desired to marry. and thus haemolysis was known to many in some of its phases at least. if the blood did not mix, it would bring about "confusion of caste" as the hindu says; a straight line of

GRIMM TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL 2 1883 COMPLETE

ye dropped alive in his eddies; and pausan. viii. 7,2: to be ap^awv kaoiecrav e? ttjv aeivrjv (a water in argolis, conn, with o7i/o9) tco tioa-ei^wvl ittttovs ol apyeloi, icekoo-jjievovs >%d\ivols. horace, od. 3, 13: fons bandusiae, non sine floribus eras donaberis haedo (see suppl. it is pretty well known, that even before the introduction of christianity or christian baptism, the heathen norsemen had a hallowing of new-born infants by means of water; they called this vatni ausa, sprinkling with water. very likely the same ceremony was practised by all other teutons, and they may have ascribed a peculiar virtue to the water used in it, as christians do to baptismal water (superst. swed. 116. after a christening, the esthonians will bribe the clerk to let them have the water, and th

, and through the sky they survey unseen the doings of men. and as all plants turn to the light of heaven, as all souls look up to heaven, so do the smoke of sacrifice and the prayers of mankind mount upwards. heaven covers earth, and our word himmel comes from the root hima (tego, involvo, vestio, gramm. 2, 55; conf. lith. dangus coelum, from dengiu tego; ohg. himilezi laquear. the goths and old norsemen agree in preferring the form himins, mminn, and most other teutons himil; even swed. norw. dan. have himmel. the saxon race has moreover two terms peculiar to itself: one is os. hebhan, hevan, as. heofon, engl. heaven, and still in lower saxony and westphalia, heben, lieven, haven, hawen. i have endeavoured to make out the area over which this name extends (gramm. i, xiv. the frisians did

filled with fire, comes out most clearly from its opposite, a flameworld in the south (p. 558, which the edda calls muspell or muspells-heimr. this is bright and hot, glowing and burning, 4 1 wallach. iad (hiatus, iadul hell. 2 as evening is the mouth of night. 3 here we may sum up what living men have reached hades and come back: of the greeks, orpheus in search of eurydice; odysseus; aeneas. of norsemen, hermdftr when dispatched after baldr, and hadding (saxo gram. p. 16. medieval legends of brandanus and tundalus; that of tanhauser and others like it shall come in the next chap. monkish dreams, visions of princes who see their ancestors in hell, are coll. in d.s. nos. 461. 527. 530. 554; of the same kind is the vision of the vacant chair in the annolied 724, conf. tundalus 65, 7. 4 musp

JENNINGS HARGRAVE ROSICRUCIANS RITES MYSTERIES

t. george; the crowned serpent of the royal house of milan; the cairns, as we have already affirmed, and the runic monuments: the round towers of ireland (regarding which there hath been so much, and so diverse and vain speculation; the memorial piles, and the slender (on seashore and upland) towers left by the vikinghs, or sea-kings, in their adventurous and predatory voyages; the legends of the norsemen or the normans; the vestiges so recently, in the discovery of the forward-of the-old-time ages, exposed to the light of criticism, in the time-out-ofmind antique and quaint cities of the extinct peoples and of the forgotten religions in central america: the sun or fire-worship of the peruvians, and their vestal or virginguardians of the fire; the priestly fire-rites of the mexicans, quenc

MICHAEL TSARION ATLANTIS ALIEN VISITATION AND GENETIC MANIPULATION

s meets the fomoriansthe laestrygones were also a giant people, kinsmen of the cyclops, we are told, addicted to cannibal-ismand were worshippers of poseidon like the cyclops and cretans. can there be any serious doubtthat homer, whose geography may be said without hesitation to have been related to the regions of theatlantic ocean and in no sense whatever to the mediterranean, was describing the norsemen, dwellingin the northern parts of norway to which odysseus ship was blown, to the land of the midnight sun?sir william ridgeway, perhaps the foremost greek scholar and archaeologist of our period, found nohesitation in pronouncing them as norwegians. they were also known as the formiae, a giant peoplewho formed settlements in libya, and were related probably to the formorians or fomori of

THE GOD OF THE WITCHES

ries later other missionaries entered on the east. the christian church hadby this time become more organised, more dogmatic, more bent on proselytising. the main attack, therefore,was not on the people but on the royal families, particularly on the queens whose influence was wellunderstood. paganism, however, received continual reinforcements in the successive invasions of heathenpeoples; danes, norsemen, angles, jutes and saxons poured in and took possession. in judging of the historyof early christianity in britain it must always be remembered that the people who brought it in on the eastcoast were foreigners, who never amalgamated with the natives. augustine was italian, and for more than acentury no native britons were advanced to high places in the church. theodore of tarsus, with th

hose who in such wise transform themselves into the appearance of a wildanimal, penance for three years because this is devilish. three centuries later king edgar[5] found that theold religion was more common than the official faith, and he urges that "every christian should zealouslyaccustom his children to christianity" the god of the witcheschapter i. the horned god9the great influx of heathen norsemen, under sweyn and canute into england and under rollo into france,must have been a terrible blow to christianity in western europe, in spite of the so-called conversion of therulers. though the new religion steadily gained ground, the old religion regained many "converts, andmore than one ruler held firmly to the faith of his fathers. this was markedly the case among the east saxons,the mo

TYSON DONALD NEW MILLENNIUM MAGIC

of his or her own blood can commit the worshipper wholly into the keeping of deity. the shamans of the north under- stood this truth. the third act of sacrifice was the nine-day fast odin endured, during which he took neither food nor drink. to go nine days without food is comparatively easy. to endure nine days without water is a hardship that would cause the death of all but the strongest. the norsemen were a physical race constantly pressing the boundaries of their endurance. one of the runes revealed by odin to his people is nyd, which means "the necessity to endure" they would have appreciated full well the meaning of nine days without water. interestingly, there is a japanese bud- dhist initiation that requires the priest undertaking it to go nine days and nights without water or fo

and fiery eyes who carried a hammer. by the power of the all that is within them, human beings drew this symbolic figure from the unmanifest in order to harness and control the forces of the god. they did not cre- ate the underlying reality. what they did was provide a vehicle through which the pre-existing forces could express themselves to the human race. in ascribing to thor a human form, the norsemen gave those forces qualities they would not otherwise have possessed. the pre-human thor was not concerned with the affairs of humanity. it was not a fleshy being with memories of a past and hopes for the future, but was a principle of nature, a natural concourse of forces that, when cast into the mold of a man, could be addressed in human language and might respond on the human level. the

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